Stranded
by Yarochisai
Summary: An abandoned Harry Potter/Naruto Crossover with a bunch of random Naruto characters stuck in the HP-verse via a crack theory on the Sharingan. Self-pitying shinobi galore. I have not updated since the end of 2007. Please stop PMing me for updates.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Disclaimer in profile

Pairings: I don't really have any in mind, except that it may be ShikaIno, just for the sake of having _someone_ go out. Otherwise, I don't really have many other plans of putting people together. I have discovered time and time again that... I'm crap when it comes to romance. I think... Well, I like to think of myself as _decent_ crap, at least. Which is a parodox... ShikaIno is probably the only definite pairing I've had in mind, since I may or may not have promised some readers a ShikaIno pairing in my other fic... I can't really remember...

-

**July 3, 1995  
The River Country, near the Akatsuki base and the region between the Fire and Wind Countries**

The telltale whistling of metal in the wind warned Deidara of the incoming blades. He lightly jumped out of the path of the dozens of shuriken that had flown at him. The tiny shuriken were embedded deep in the tree where the Akatsuki member had previously been standing.

'_Great..._' Deidara thought, holding a kunai in his mouth as he tried to flee. He felt a slight feeling of dread when he found himself facing a white-eyed shinobi—most likely a Hyuuga—as well as two others, clad in tights and extremely aesthetically displeasing hairstyles. '_What a nuisance... My escape will be a bit more difficult than I planned..._'

Four newcomers, in addition to the two Konoha-nin already chasing him...

The young blond shinobi was the most feared Jinchuuriki, the container of the nine-tailed demon, but that was all that Deidara knew of the shinobi. A little over three years ago, Itachi had told the others how the Jinchuuriki didn't quite live up to the title, being a clumsy and rather awkward boy. Deidara couldn't see why. Yes, his long-distance attacks left much to be desired, but Deidara's instincts told him not to mess with him in close range. In any case, Deidara knew that keeping it a long-distance battle would work almost easily in his favor.

The silver-haired one, Deidara already knew enough about. That one was the famed Hatake Kakashi of the sharingan eye. Rumors claimed that he had copied over a thousand techniques, though Deidara didn't find that ultimately too impressive, considering the fact that all he had to do was copy it with his Sharingan. In addition to that, it was doubtful that the Copy-nin would be able to use all those "one thousand techniques" in one battle anyway. No one in the world had that kind of chakra.

The one with the pale eyes was, no doubt, a member of the Hyuuga clan, and was quite a powerful one as well. Kisame had mentioned earlier how, when he fought this team earlier with the Shōten no Jutsu, ((_Shapeshifting Technique_)), the pale-eyed shinobi had attacked with some sort of invisible vacuum. If this shinobi was, indeed, a Hyuuga, then he had just done the unthinkable. Whether the attack was ninjutsu or genjutsu, it was still a long-distance attack, a far cry from the usual famed Hyuuga taijutsu style, which mainly revolved around close combat.

Kisame had also mentioned a bit more about the other three shinobi who had arrived. Those clad in green seemed to have a near identical fighting style, though the older one's techniques were far better developed than the younger, who seemed to avoid using any form of ninjutsu or genjutsu. Instead, there was more power in his strikes than Deidara had ever seen before.

The kunoichi with the buns in her hair exhibited no particular skill in any of the usual three shinobi specialties, seeming to prefer weaponry over genjutsu, ninjutsu, and even taijutsu. Her techniques were clean and accurate. If it hadn't been for Deidara's far greater experience and the scope over his eye, he probably would have completely missed out on her presence and would have been struck be the flying shuriken.

The pink haired girl, as well as the old woman, had arrived just moments before the second team. The two women had parted ways with Uzumaki Naruto and Hatake Kakashi to fight with Sasori no Danna. They didn't look like much, and with the young and inexperienced girl and the ancient and should-be retired old woman, it was hard to tell who was more powerful and more of a threat. Either way, if they were able to defeat Sasori, they must have been much more powerful than they appeared.

Deidara was well aware of his own potential. His techniques had few openings, most gaps being made up for with his overall strategy to basically keep it so that the enemy were always chasing after him, meaning that they would always had one definitive location: right behind him. Of course, there were many occasions in which he had to improvise. Taking the battle in the desert as he fought the kazekage Jinchuuriki for example, he had been forced to completely change tactics, considering the fact that the Kazekage's geographical advantage left nowhere to run.

Regardless, Deidara knew he was clever enough to defeat any shinobi, almost regardless of the number. However, with so many high-class shinobi after him...

The moment he had returned with the Jinchuuriki from the sand, he had had little time to recover, having gone straight to the tailed beast extraction ceremony. He was low on clay, he was rather exhausted, and more and more shinobi kept on showing up!

As powerful as he knew he was, Deidara had to admit that he was at a growing disadvantage.

He would have to end this quickly and finish them all off in one devastating blow.

And he knew exactly how to do it.

Deidara knew that ducking low in the bushes for too long would be futile, with the Hyuuga now taking part in the battle. He would have to keep moving.

Briefly skimming his area with the scope, he quickly spotted his clay bird masterpiece on the ground and jumped onto the other side.

Hatake Kakashi shouted a warning to his companions, cautioning them of Deidara's clay bomb techniques. A fruitless warning, Deidara thought to himself, considering the chances they had of escaping his next technique.

Deidara spat out the kunai and sank his teeth into the clay, tearing off huge piece and swallowing it in a gulp. The Konoha-nin watched in confusion as Deidara continued to practically breath in his own clay. They knew something was to come, but they didn't know if they would be able to stop it in time.

"Take a look at my ultimate work of art, mm...!" Deidara said as his body began to grow larger and larger. "Jibaku Bunshin (_Suicide Bombing Clone_)!"

The Hyuuga's pale eyes, now lined with the folds on the surface of his temples, widened as he observed all of the man's chakra gather in a single compact spot at once.

Deidara knew what he was thinking.

'Surely he wouldn't even _think_ of using a jutsu that required _that amount_ of chakra!'

But oh, he was.

The others felt the pressure growing, but the Hyuuga _saw_ it. He _knew_ that this was definitely... positively... a _huge _attack.

In a few brief moments, they all realized it.

'_Yeah_,' the missing-nin thought to himself. '_This _psycho _is going to blow himself up._'

Self-detonation. This was Deidara's ultimate 'work of art'.

The Akatsuki member knew for a fact that he himself was safe from his own technique. He had arranged it so that this body, once blown to pieces, would end up being replaced by a clay clone of himself, which he had cleverly hidden from even the eyes of the Hyuuga. In the ground.

With a bit of luck, a great deal of precision, and a clever use of a well-practiced substitution technique, Deidara would wipe out both teams of Konoha-nin _and_ come out in one piece. Perhaps covered in a bit of muck, but still one piece.

Deidara knew that he wasn't looking so pretty right now, with his bloated, bubbling form, but no doubt, there would be some pretty spectacular explosions for someone watching a few dozen miles away.

The shinobi were already fleeing for their lives, but it was easy to see that it was all in vain. The explosion would easily overtake them, as they had not had the time or the ability to focus hard enough to properly apply chakra to their feet so they could run at top speed.

And, even at top speed, Deidara doubted that anyone could run fast enough to escape his—

Everything went white.

-

The dust was rising, and Kakashi could see the spherical mass of ember, smoke, and dust as it grew larger and larger, nearly enveloping his rival and his students.

He could see it _very_ well, activating his Sharingan and pushing himself to his limit.

Seconds later, the shinobi were all left wondering if it was too late.

The dust was starting to settle, and, after a few moments of coughing and armwaving, the smoke slowly began to clear and the teams looked at each other, finally able to see somewhat clearly in the settling dust.

"What's going on?" Gai said, looking around, attempting to see through the dust.

It didn't _seem _like there was any logical way to stop the explosion.

Naruto and his doppelganger, who were in a tree carrying Gaara's motionless body over his/their shoulders, stared at what looked like a shrinking white crack in the middle of the air. Finally, the mysterious rift disappeared for good.

There was no explosion, no bright lights, nothing at all.

There was no sign left of the Deidara-bomb except for the huge crater in the earth and the trees, as if a sphere had appeared out of nowhere and caused everything in contact with it to disappear.

'_How anticlimactic..._' Naruto thought to himself.

Kakashi nearly fell backwards, out of energy needed to support himself, but Naruto caught him before he could make a humiliating landing on his back.

"Are you okay, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked his teacher, concerned that one of the strongest shinobi he knew was so exhausted and depleted of all chakra.

"What in the world...did you do...?" Sakura asked him, her green eyes wide.

Kakashi shook his head. "Him and the explosion... I sent them into another dimension... But... more importantly... is everyone safe?"

Touche. There _wasn't _any logical explanation as to what stopped the explosion.

"Screw safety!" Naruto exclaimed. "Why didn't you do that earlier?"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

**July 3, 1995  
Hogwarts Express **

The weather couldn't have been better. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had managed to get a compartment to themselves. Pigwidgeon was, once again, hidden under Ron's dress robes to stop him from hooting continually; Hedwig was dozing, her head under her wing, and Crookshanks was curled up in a spare seat like a large furry ginger cushion that no one was really allowed to sit on unscathed.

Harry stared out of the window at the school carriages that they had ridden in as the train they rode on started moving. Cedric's death had hit him hard before, but now, the weight on his chest was starting to lighten. He stared out of the window and frowned, rubbing his eyes and looking at the carriages again. There was some sort of shimmering shadow in front of them all.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione talked more fully and freely than they had all week as the train sped south, where it would, in eight hours, reach King's Cross. Dumbledore's speech at the end of year feast had seemed to unblock him. Perhaps talking about Cedric's death had given him closure. It was less painful to think and talk about what happened now. The three friends broke off their conversation about what action Dumbledore might be taking, even now, to stop Voldemort only when the lunch trolley arrived.

When Hermione returned from the trolley and put her money bag into her schoolbag, she pulled out a copy of the Daily Prophet and read it. "There's nothing here. I've been checking the newspaper everyday. Just a small piece the day after the third task, saying that you had won the tournament. They didn't even mention Cedric. Nothing about any of it. If you ask me, Fudge is forcing them to keep quiet."

"What about Rita?" Ron asked. "You don't honestly expect _her_ to keep her quill to herself, do you?"

"Oh, Rita hasn't written anything at all since the third task..." Hermione said slyly, "As a matter of fact, she isn't going to be writing anything at all for a while. Not unless she wants me to spill the beans on _her._"

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked her.

"I found out how she was listening in on private conversations," she said smugly, picking up her bag once again to look through it. "She was _bugging_ us..."

"Wait, but you say that electronics don't work on Hogwarts gro—"

"No, no," she said with a smile. "You see... Rita Skeeter just so happens to be an unregistered Animagus. She can turn..."

She pulled out a sealed glass jar out of her bag.

"...into a _beetle_."

"..." The whole compartment was completely silent, save for the low thrumming sound of the train on the tracks.

"How...ironic," Harry said, at lost for words.

"There was a beetle on the statue the night we heard Hagrid telling Madame Maxime about his mum!" Ron exclaimed.

"Viktor pulled a beetle out of my hair after we had had our conversation by the lake," Hermione said, nodding.

"Rita was on the windowsill of the Divination class the day my scar hurt," Harry said thoughtfully.

"And when we saw Malfoy under that tree, he was actually talking to her in his hand," she added.

"Wait, then Malfoy knew!" Ron said angrily. "That's how she's been getting those stupid interviews with the Slytherins! Damn Slytherins!"

"I put an Unbreakable Charm on jar so she can't transform and break the glass. I'm letting her out when we get back to Lond—"

"You're kidding!" Ron shouted. "Keep her in there!"

"No, no, I've told her to keep her quill to herself for a whole year. See if she can't break the habit of writing horrible lies about people."

The door of the compartment immediately slid open. "Very clever, Granger," Draco Malfoy said. Crabbe and Goyle were standing behind him. All three looked more self-satisfied, arrogant, and menacing than Harry had ever seen them before.

"So," he continued, advancing slight into the compartment with a cocky smirk on his face. "You caught some pathetic reporter, and Potter is Dumbledore's favorite boy again. Big deal."

"...Do you often spend your time outside of our compartment with your ear pressed against the door _just_ so you can pop in at the most inopportune moment?" Harry asked, cocking his head slightly too the side.

"What can I say?" Malfoy said, shrugging. "It's a habit. Still... trying to pretend that nothing's happened? That no one died? I warned you on the first day of Hogwarts when we met on the train. I _told_ you not to hang around wit riffraff like this. Too late now, _Potter_. Because of this, your friends will be the first to go, now the Dark Lord's back! Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers first! Well, second actually. Diggory was the fir—_GAAAAAH_!"

Something tan and crimson shot past Harry's head and into Malfoy's chest with a speed the knocked him back into Crabbe and Goyle.

Malfoy ignored his blood robes and stared at the severed arm in horror.

"Oh god..." Hermione said.

"Somebody Splinched themselves!" Ron exclaimed, but Hermione shook her head.

"No, Splinching is painless and not bloody at all!" she said, shaking her head and the tears out of her eyes. She covered her mouth as if she were going to heave. "Somebody cut an arm off..." she said.

Harry was taking deep breaths. The arm had appeared in midair out of nowhere. Since the train had been moving so quickly, the arm itself had probably been falling towards the ground because of the gravity, but it had also stayed in the same spot. So because the train was moving and the arm inside was not, it had struck Malfoy in the chest.

_((A/N: was that a clear explanation? Okay, think of it like this, someone ahead of you on the freeway throws a rubber ball straight up out of the sunroof, and you run into it as it comes down. I hope that's clearer...))_

Thus, the bloody robes.

Once the initial shock was over, everyone in the compartment began to scream. Everyone except Harry, who was staring at the tongue that lolled outside of the palm's...mouth. ...Uh, yeah. The fingernails were painted purple, and the fingers slowly stopped twitching. There was an odd ring with a plain platinum metal and ordinary blue-green stone with some Chinese character inscribed in it.

Momentarily feeling unable to breath, Harry panicked with the rest of the students at the sight of the severed arm.

After several moments of being unsure of what to do, Hermione finally pulled out her own wand and pointed it at the arm, about to levitated it and bring it to the closest most capable adult possible when Harry spotted something strange out of the window.

"Look!" he said, pointing at a dark crack in the middle of the air, just above the train tracks where the train had been over just before when the arm appeared.

The crack grew larger and larger, but only slowly because the train was gaining distance and this strange rift above the air.

The Gryffindors' and Slytherins' eyes alike widened when a huge explosion shook the area with concussive force, despite the fact that the train itself was far away.

"That was huge..." Hermione whispered in a hushed voice.

"Do you think... you think it was You-Know-Who...?" Ron said in a low voice.

All of a sudden, Draco muttered a cleansing spell over the front of his shirt, turned toe, and left in such a rush that his robes billowed almost like Snape's. "We're leaving," he said, unnecessarily to his two morons—er, friends.

Taking deep breaths, Harry let his limp legs fall out from underneath him as he slumped down on the floor of the train compartment.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

**August 24, 1995  
Konohagakure**

"Dammit!" A wind-propelled shuriken shot through the air at a speed even Tenten couldn't throw at. It pierce through an Akatsuki underling, who went down immediately. Dead.

One down, an army more to go.

Not literally an army of course. Akatsuki didn't have _that_ many followers. But it was enough to swarm the few forces that were still in Konoha. A large number of shinobi, including the ANBU, many from the Niju Shotai (the Twenty Platoons), and a good number of jounin had left after the Village of the Hidden Leaf had officially declared war on the Village of the Hidden Sound at last, after a serious offense in which, upon Yamato, Naruto, Sakura, and Sai's return to Konoha, they were ambushed by several teams of Sound chuunin.

Though the Sound chuunin had been easily taken care of, even with the new Team Seven's various injuries, it was still enough for the Leaf, finally fed up by the Sound, to call for war. So many offenses in less than a decade—it did not come unexpected.

Fairly confident with their powerful allies, like the Land of Waves and the Sand Village. The Land of Waves was not a particularly military dominated country, but they lent their support through commerce, supplying the Fire and the Wind Countries with ample supply, including weapons and supplements. As the newly revived Kazekage of the Sand, Gaara was not particularly enthusiastic about immediately calling war, but he owed his best (and only) friend Naruto a huge debt that, it seemed, would never get to be repaid.

With their many allies, Konoha sent a majority of its forces directly to the Sound just days ago, feeling that once they arrived at the sound, they would be able to overcome the Oto-nin by both the quantity and the quality of their top shinobi.

Unfortunately, in their enthusiasm, they had overlooked one thing:

One: without many of the shinobi, the village was left in the hands of many of the younger shinobi and only a few adults to defend against other invaders.

And two: they left their Jinchuuriki at home.

So it was only probable that Akatsuki would come by Konoha to pick up their somewhat defenseless nine-tailed demon, thus sparking a deadly fight within Konoha itself.

Ink-drawn picture lions ran around the city, tearing at Konoha's enemies mercilessly. Why expect mercy from an ink painting? One could expect just as much mercy from the lions as one could expect it from the artist, Sai, himself. Though attempting to learn how to feel emotions, Sai still felt nothing as the lions clawed at the lesser Akatsuki henchmen.

For some shinobi, this was not their first encounter with the Akatsuki. However, it was no longer some sort of three-on-one battle in their favor. There were not one, not two, but _five_ main Akatsuki members, in addition to the lesser members, fighting alongside each other.

Lee and Tenten were forced to fight Kisame, same as before, though Neji was busy with... with... another freak.

This Akatsuki member had the most absurd body decorations Neji hat ever seen—venus-flytrap like extensions encased his body, and Neji could see his skin color split into white and black halves.

Neji blessed his luck, feeling relieved that he had had the insight to develop a Hyuuga-only long distance attack, which he used to keep the plant-like member of the Akatsuki at a distance. Close range combat may have been his forte, but it would be useful to deal as much damage as possible before the enemy was within range so that they would both be able to begin attacking each other at once.

The Hyuuga's face split into a relieved smirk when the Akatsuki member fell to the ground.

'_Well..._' he thought to himself. '_That was easier than I thought—_'

As the man fell, he didn't only _fall_. He sank into the ground and disappeared, leaving Neji dumbfounded.

He couldn't just disappear! If he had an extreme amount of speed, then he would at least raise a bit of dust from the ground. If he had used some type of genjutsu, then the Byakugan should be able to detect it.

Neji shouted with the blinding pain in his left leg. He looked down in horror to find that the venus-flytrap extension had clamped itself down hard onto his limb, with the spikes sinking into his flesh.

He couldn't risk using his kaiten, unless he wanted fling the enemy off _with _his leg. He couldn't use his empty palm technique because it was too close. Plus, it was too difficult to attack at an angle like that. The vacuum palm would work best at long distance. He needed back-up—

"Hakke Kūshō (_Eight Trigrams Empty Palm_)!" two girls shouted and Zetsu jerked back and forth, as if struck by two invisible forces.

And then he hit on the other side by a huge, not-so-invisible shuriken.

Neji saw through his Byakugan the two Hyuga heiresses running towards them on one side and Tenten and Lee approaching quickly from the other side.

Surprisingly enough, the three hits were not enough to penetrate the plant-covering, though it did, at least, give Neji a chance to free his bloody leg from the plant freak's hold.

"Lee! Tenten!" Neji shouted, feeling relieved at the sight of his teammates bloody, bruised, sweating, but at least in one piece. The plant-man had merged with the ground once again and had gained distance between them all. "You two beat Kisame?"

Neji was amazed. Tenten and Lee, who were both running to him waving their arms, had gotten much stronger than he had expected over the years. He knew that they were better than the average shinobi, but the fact that those two alone beat a member of the Akatsuki had greatly improved his already growing opinion of them—_wait a minute..._

Tenten and Lee ran faster, with the shark-like Akatsuki following right behind them.

"_...Dammit, you idiots, don't bring him over HERE_!" Neji shouted angrily, pulling his younger Hyuga cousin by the arm and having Hinata follow as they ran away from his two teammates.

Both of whom were running away from the 'shark-nin'.

"Neji!" Tenten cried. "_Heeelp_!"

"No!"

"Deal with him on your own!" Hanabi cried, struggling to get out of Neji's arms so she could run on your own. "We've already got our own guy to deal with!"

Team Gai and the two Hyuga heiresses cried as they ran.

Meanwhile, the other shinobi were trying to deal with the rest of the invaders.

"What a pain," another member of the Akatsuki said to no one in particular, looking at the shinobi fighting around him as if he hadn't had a care in the world for his own side. "This is a complete waste of my valuable time." The crown of his head was almost completely covered in a cloth and the lower half of his face was hidden by a darker cloth, almost like an absurd combination of Kakashi and Shino.

Which really a spectacular combination to think about.

"Same here!" a voice shouted. This exclamation was joined by a bark. Inuzuka Kiba, clad in his usual, dark garments that were more common in the civilian military rather than an actual shinobi's clothing, stood with Akamaru, ready to fight, and the usual stoic and silent Aburame Shino standing by him, saying little as he usually did. "This land has been the territory of the Inuzuka clan since our Inuzuka Tenrousei marked it over four hundred years ago!"

"An Inuzuka, hn? Your wolfhounds are worth quite a bit of ryou, whether taken alive or just for their fur."

Kiba's eye twitched.

"Don't you even fucking think of that!" he growled, about to charge at the enemy when his shoulder and leg were grabbed. He looked back to see Shino and Akamaru behind him, keeping him out of trouble.

"Don't lose your temper," Shino said briefly. Akamaru barked, telling him not to underestimate the Akatsuki.

Kiba, still red in the face and feeling the urge to tear this man to piece, took a deep breath. "You're right," he muttered. "I shouldn't..."

"Hehehe, you're just a scared little puppy," he said. "Lucky for you, I could care less about you and your little dog. It's your Jinchuuriki that we're after for today."

"I'm not scared!" Kiba barked angrily. "And... and you're after our _what_?"

"The demon of your village," he said, "Uzumaki Naruto. We were saving the nine-tailed demon for last, but some of us decided that our leader's orders were in need of a bit of a change and figured that it would be easiest to strike while Konoha was bare of its defenses. Your demon friend will be ours."

Kiba who, like an overwhelming majority of the other shinobi, was unaware of Naruto's demonic inheritance, contemplated it for a moment. He shrugged.

"...No _way_," he said, rubbing his nose and grinning, all previous anger forgotten at the ridiculous notion that Naruto of all people was the Kyuubi that attacked Konoha so many years ago.

...Fifteen years and eleven months, to be more exact.

...On October tenth.

The...the day of Naruto's birth.

"Naruto's no demon!" he said, shaking his head, though his instincts and common sense were starting to tell otherwise. "And... and even if he was...I... he's..."

"..._our_ demon," Shino finished simply.

What?

"It doesn't matter whether he's Jinchuuriki or not," the Aburame continued, speaking more words at this minute that Kiba had ever heard him say in a day. "He's still a loyal shinobi of Konoha, and a great one at that. He is our friend and our shinobi. If he is a demon, than he is our demon. If Naruto was the one rumored to have been sacrificed for the sake of Konoha at the Yondaime's hands, then out of respect for his sacrifice and the Yondaime's decision that I won't simply turn on him should some stranger come up to me and imply that he was the cause for Konoha's near-destruction when he was just several hours old."

Kiba turned his head again, staring at Shino. He grinned. As level-headed and logical as ever.

"Yeah!" Kiba said. "He's not even a _hundredth_ as freaky as that other Jinchuuriki. Gaara, right? Or even _Shino_ here!"

Shino ignored that comment. "Now that our side is on the same wavelength," he said. "It's time for you to leave."

Shino glanced at the member of the Akatsuki through his lenses, silently picking out possible strategies to use against this strange man, and taking notice of the mysteriously black, tar-like substance under the man's skin, as opposed to the hollow cavernous emptiness under his own skin. In Shino's opinion, any weapon hidden in the flesh was likely to be one of the most dangerous.

"Bug-freak is right!" Kiba said. The stress mark on Shino's temple went unnoticed, as he was completely swathed in heavy clothing. "Whatever it is you're planning, we're going to take you down!"

Nearby, Shikamaru faced off against a man with very light colored hair, sleeked back, bearing a huge three-bladed scythe when Ino entered the scene, concerned for her friend, who was drenched in blood.

"Stop it," he snapped at her, pushing her away with a wild look in his eyes. "It's not... it's not mine... Not my blood..."

Ino faltered. Shikamaru, despite his lack of enthusiasm for equal treatment between sexes, was still a gentleman, and never before in his life had he ever laid a hand on Ino. Not an aggressive one, anyway. And she had never before seen him with such a look in his eye. Feeling his 'aura' and closely watching his movement for a brief second as he wiped the blood off his face and removed his outer clothing, she noticed a look of panic and despair on his face.

But why?

Ino never got to the chance to ponder this, shrieking loudly and jumping out of the way as the Akatsuki member's huge scythe landed on the ground where she had previously been standing, less than a second before. Shikamaru, who had been standing there next to her, flinched when the blade nicked his cheek.

Was it all in her head, or did Shikamaru look even more panic-stricken by such a tiny cut? There was hardly a drop of blood!

"You know what's coming, don't you?" blond man asked slyly, licking Shikamaru's blood off of the blade. "This is the part where things get interesting..."

"_No, it doesn't_!" someone shouted. Several of the Konoha shinobi ran past him and...

"HOLY CR—!" the Akatsuki-nin when a whole crowd of Akatsuki ran past him and nearly took their own companion down. "FUCK ALL OF YOU IDIOTS, I NEARLY COMPLETED THE RITUAL HERE!"

"Oh shut up, Hidan. It's not going to be too hard to take down these brats," Kakuzu said, bearing only a few signs that he had actually been in a fight.

On one side, it was the Akatsuki members Hidan, Kakuzu, Zetsu, and Kisame.

On the other side, it was the Konoha Nine minus Sasuke plus Sai, Neji, Tenten, Lee, Hanabi, the Konohamaru trio, a handful of younger children, and some older shinobi whom the others didn't recognize, wearing an orange mask with only one eye hole for the right eye.

"Anyone injured?" Sakura asked them.

"Relatively fine," Neji said. "Though personally, I'd like to beat that plant _thing's_ face in for biting my leg..." He gazed down slightly at the wounds on his legs. It was no longer bleeding. In fact, it was rather burnt, rather than bloody. There must have been some kind of chemical in the venus-flytrap man.

"That doesn't smell too good," Kiba said, rubbing his nose and wincing at the sight of his leg.

"Okama-kun (1) should be fine," Sai said to them. Neji hit him.

"Shut up, or I'll kill you," he said threateningly.

"Big words coming from a transvestite with a gimp leg."

"You two!" Tenten shouted, holding Neji back with her hands beneath his arms and over his shoulders in a body-lock. "Focus on the Akatsuki here!"

"Hahaha, you are all such fools," the shinobi with a face mask said.

They all turned to face him.

"Who are you anyway?" Sakura asked, not recognizing him at all.

"_Tobi_!" the plant-like Akatsuki-nin said. "_What are you thinking?_"

"I'm thinking," this 'Tobi' said, making room between all of them, "that we've been in Konoha far too long for a simple kidnapping, and that right about now, I'd like to finish this mission up right quick."

"Bastard, we're here too and you don't know what you're—"

"Hari kangoku no Jutsu (_Crystal Prison Technique_; sorry for bad grammar and corny name?)!"

So many things happened at once. Neji shoved everyone within a five-meter radius away from him using the kaiten, with those closest—Lee, Hanabi, and Hinata—being pushed the farthest from the impact. Chouji had managed to scoop up most of the children with his large arms and carry them out quickly with him, and Shino pulled several Konoha children out himself.

The others suddenly found themselves trapped inside an invisible box.

"Crap!" Naruto shouted, pounding on an invisible wall. There was no exit!

"TOBI YOU ASS YOU GOT US TOO!" the Akatsuki shouted angrily, most were swearing at him. Out of all of the shinobi, Kisame was the only one able to avoid this technique.

"The prison technique allows me to absorb _everything_," Tobi said smugly. "Chakra, bloodline, jutsus... everything. If you're alive by the time the Kyubi vessel is taken down, then I shall gladly release you from my hold. Otherwise... Well, I suppose with so many Akatsuki dead, Leader would all _have_ to let me join, wouldn't he...?"

"_Tobi_!" one of Zetsu's halves shouted. "_Do _not_ take us down with him_!"

"You are not in much of a position to demand things," Tobi said, almost thoughtfully.

"And neither are you," another voice said.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted to his teacher desperately. "Help!"

"I will, Naruto," Kakashi said to him.

"So, you're a teacher now..." Tobi said to him.

"I don't know you," Kakashi said. Even after a month of recovering from his case of chakra depletion in the hospital, he was not at full strength. He made a handseal and forced his Sharingan to change. This was the easy part. The sharingan by itself took a large amount of chakra to change forms—almost everything he had for the time being. Luckily, he had Yoroi Akiko, the elder sister to Yoroi Akado, the Leaf shinobi who had also betrayed them to the Sound. "So, you think you can handle this?" he said to her.

"If it can prove my loyalty to Konoha after all these years, then of course," the woman said. In the blink of an eye, she threw a kyogetsu to Kisame, whom she knew had more chakra than Tobi. Kisame managed to avoid it the first time around but realized belatedly that the chain and sickle were like a homing device and wrapped itself around him.

Ordinarily, he could have easily broken out of the chain like it was paper but the moment his blue skin came in contact with the metal, he immediately felt weakened.

Focusing solely absorbing the chakra at a huge rate, Akiko was left completely vulnerable. Luckily, it didn't matter too much. Kakashi pulled up his hitai-ate headband and pulled it up, revealing his sharingan eye once again. Ordinarily, Kakashi wouldn't have even thought of resorting to such a strenuous technique while he was so depleted, but placing a hand on the chain of Akiko's weapon, he felt his chakra return to him at a much quicker rate.

He focused on his targets, who definitely started feeling it's effects.

"What's happening?" Tobi shouted, trying to see what was going on behind him, "What's going o—?"

A huge light engulfed burst out of a midair rift and engulfed them quickly. He glanced back at the Konoha shinobi still in the invisible box and realized it had no effect on those inside. They were still losing chakra and energy at an astonishing rate. Ino, Shikamari, Tenten, and Sakura were already unconscious from depletion. Neji and Sai were on the ground, conscious, but unmoving. Kiba had to resort to eating a handful of his soldier pills to stay on his feet. Only Naruto seemed fully conscious. Weakened, yes, but he lacked the glazed over look in his eyes that everyone else had gained the moment they ran low on their chakra reserves.

The whiskers on his cheeks were thicker and bolder, which meant that he was reverting back to his Kyubi-controlled form. What was alarming was that despite the boost of power that Naruto should have been receiving, he was still losing his strength, albeit much slower than he would have lost chakra without this form.

Kakashi realized with a sinking feeling that even the Kyuubi was not helping Naruto recover the amount of chakra that they were losing. Which must have meant... the Kyubi itself may be losing its chakra, and there was an actual possibility that it was being torn from Naruto. He could _feel_ the intensity of the power that was emanating from Naruto, as well as it's rapid dissipation.

In fact, Naruto didn't seem to be very exhausted. Just pained. It would be best to end this quickly.

This must have been a technique similar to what the Akatsuki had done to steal the Shukaku demon from Gaara.

_Ordinarily, Kakashi would never do this..._

"Kakashi-sensei..." Naruto said. "Help...!"

_...But he needed to stop the Akatsuki from obtaining the Kyubi. _

"More chakra," Kakashi grunted to Akiko.

"Don't tell me to do what I'm already trying to do," she said, sweating slightly. "I'm taking in all I can as fast as I can..."

Kakashi turned his head in their direction.

_He needed to get Naruto out the most. _

He turned his Mangekyou sharingan towards Naruto.

_Whether to not it was by conventional means. _

"No, no, no, no, no," he said, shaking his head and changing his mind, probably remembering what had happened with Deidara and his arms, not to mention the huge explosive. "Wait...! We don't... wanna die like... like _that _either...!"

There was a strange feeling in the pit of Naruto's stomach. He glanced behind him to see if the others were feeling this strange sensation but found himself to be the last one standing, though hopefully not the last one alive.

He looked back to Kakashi, only to find that everything was a blur of colors. He could make out a woman's figure standing next to a person with silver hair and attire that was probably borrowed from the Konoha hospital. Everything was completely warped and Naruto fell, unable to move from the extreme pain he felt inside of himself, as if his insides were being mixed around with a blender.

"I can't say that you won't die," Kakashi said to Naruto sadly. "But I can say that you'll be sent to a better place... Better than where you are now..."

'I think,' Kakashi added mentally.

"W-wait...Kakashi, you.., you bastard! Don't... don't y'point... that eye... at us...y-you—!"

_Goodbye, Naruto._

Everything went white.

"—bastard!"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Words to Know:**

(1) (n) gay person, male transvestite

**My Thinking Corner**

Wow, this was harder than I expected. I enjoy writing stories, but I hate starting them. I usually feel that it's a bit difficult to start, considering that I always focus on the other things, but I suppose this fic would be even harder, considering I've barely planned anything for this story out at all.

Once again, Yoroi Akiko is _not_ a main character. ...Therefore, I'm hoping this prevents her from becoming a Mary-Sue. The most dramatic thing that had ever happened in her life was probably when her little brother ditched Konoha and went for the Sound (or whatever happened to that guy who Sasuke fought in the chuunin preliminaries), but that's it. No dramatic past. And no future either, considering she's a throwaway character, as a majority of my OCs are. However, if you have anything to say about my OCs, feel free to stick it in my face. And when/if you do, please stick it nicely.

Signing out,  
Yarochisai


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: A New Job  
_Mission Hogwarts_

**Two years later  
May 30, 1997  
Outskirts of Toyohashi in the Aichi Prefecture of Japan**

"So," an accented voice said from the darkness. "How did you come to learn of us...? We don't ordinarily accept jobs from...or even interact with... children. Particularly children who come from another location, countries away."

"How did you know my age?" their newest customer said, backing away slightly. "And where I'm from?"

"It's not hard," the supposed leader of the Hachinin said. Sometimes known just as the Eight in other countries until recently, news of their prowess and rumors of their abilities had already spread throughout the shadier areas of the world. Even the world of those who weren't even humans. Not that they had yet so far taken on any supernatural jobs yet.

Though they called themselves mercenaries, they mostly dealt with 'retrieval' and transportation jobs; however, if a particularly well-paying client had the money, they would even take on assassinations. It wasn't that they had a lack of ability when it came to doing the dirty work.

No one knew how many were actually working under this organization. What _was _common knowledge, however, was the fact that there were eight captains or co-captains or leaders—or whatever they called themselves—in charge of the whole organization. The estimations of their numbers ranged from the leading eight to hundreds.

Most people believed that it was actually a large organization with its members spread all over the world. A few believe that it's actually only a number as small as even eight, because of their famed anonymity—some saying that they had strange magical techniques and others saying that they were from a civilization so far advanced that their technology allowed for them to somehow increase or decrease their numbers at will. Or, at least, the perception of their numbers.

Of course, most rumors are not to be trusted, as stories of a civilization of another world were as believable as wizards and witches.

"_Weeell," _the leader said lazily, idly tilting his head to the side, "You're dressed in foreign clothing, so it's not hard to tell that you're not from around here..."

The boy looked down at his dark robes.

"Your voice seems to have _just_ finished the process of developing, so you must be about somewhere between fifteen and eighteen, probably around seventeen. We speak English, most of us rather well, since it is a universal languages that all of our buyers speak. However, we are not all completely fluent and have obvious remnants of our own language. Our accents. You speak with a British accent. You came all the way here on your own. Your parents are nowhere near here, and don't you deny it. You can say that our... surveillance system is extremely advanced."

"You...you _are_ good," the teen said, covering his fear with his amazement.

"_Yeah_, we are," one of them said with arrogant enthusiasm. It would have been difficult for their newest customer to know who it was if it weren't for the fact that a member with short light brown (or pink?) hair elbowed him in the side.

"Plus," a second person said, "you have a young face."

The second speaker had a mask on as well. All of the members bore white masks, eerily reminding their customer of a certain radical group of pure-blood elitists. The masks they all wore, however, were each somewhat different from each other. The assumed leader had a plain white mask, and this second one... his mask was literally blank. There weren't even eyeholes. The long dark hair that framed his literally blank face gave him an eerie presence.

Hearing the eyeless one's comment on his face, the boy's hand shot up to his own mask, as if making sure it was still in a position to hide his face. Which, oddly enough, it was. .

"You can see my face?" he asked them warily readjusting it slightly.

"I'm in charge of the surveillance. I see a lot of things, and your face is one of them."

"Prove it."

"Your eyes are gray and rather cold. Your hair, covered by that hood, is a pale white blond. I can only describe your face as pale and a bit pointed. Have you been outside recently? Probably not. You ought to fix those bags under your eyes. Get more sleep. You have a mark on your forearm the shape of a—"

"I've heard enough," their customer said quickly, raising his arms almost defensively. He removed the white skull mask hastily, as it seemed to do nothing to hide his face anyway. "...I believe you. I am... You may call me..." he paused, thinking up a random alias, "Bad Faith."

Okay. Maybe not so random.

"Well, it's nice you know our vow of secrecy beforehand," the leader said, speaking again. "_Akui_."

"What?" 'Bad Faith' said.

"Akui. It's a bit shorter for us to call you that. Plus, ...as I mentioned earlier, not _all_ of us are extremely _fluent_ in English. You may call me Ronri. Or Logic, in English, if it's easier for you. Our surveillance supervisor is Tenun, or 'Destiny'."

Akui frowned. That sounded a bit girly. Then again, this person had long hair, from what he could see of the mercenary. The name wasn't the only girly thing about this guy.

"Next is Rasen, or Spiral."

A man with hair that was more yellow than blond raised a hand, not enthusiastically, but still with energy. He was the only one wearing loose fitting sleeves. Of course, it must have been stifling for _all _of them. Considering the fact that each one of them wore dark long-sleeved clothing. Akui noticed with curiosity what appeared to be tattoos on the man's arms, though it was difficult to tell, considering the fact that his sleeves covered most of everything.

"He doesn't really respond to Raisin or whatever," Logic said. "In fact, it might just be easier to call him Kajou. Doesn't matter. If he thinks you're insulting him, he won't respond. The one next to him with the wolf-dog would be Tenrousei. Or Sirius."

"Call him _what_?"

"What?" Logic stared at him for a moment. Akui realized that it had only been a coincidence that this person's English codename was Sirius as well, despite the Grim-like dog that sat next to him. Then again, this dog had light colored fur.

"Her name is Renge, or Lotus. The name of the other woman next to her is Kokoro, the Mind. Or Heart. Or Spirit. Any of the previous. The person after that is Sai. Just Sai. No one's ever had a problem pronouncing or remembering his name before, and we don't expect you to do so now."

Akui briefly ran through their names in his head. Logic, Destiny, Spiral, Sirius, Lotus, Spirit, and Sai. Wait... that was seven.

"I heard about your organization from my mother, but weren't there supposed to be eight of you in all?" Akui said. "Don't tell me it's the _dog_. What happened to the eighth member?"

"My dog isn't pathetic or anything," the owner said quickly, though his comment went ignored.

"Amakudaru-san... 'Heaven' has left our ranks. We are no longer known as the Eight. We have just come back from break and are in the process of renaming our organization from the Eight to the Shichifukujin, after the seven lucky gods of Japan."

"We not so lucky," the blond 'Spiral' muttered under his breath.

Akui nodded. "I understand," he said.

"So," Logic said. "Now that our introductions are finished with, what is it that you want us to do for you, and how much are you willing to pay for it?"

"I need someone dead," Akui said.

Logic paused. No one said anything. Akui waited in apprehension as he waited for a response. All of the mercenaries seemed to be pondering this mission.

Akui hoped that these were the right people for the job.

The Seven exchanged brief glances through their masks. This wasn't the first assassination assignment that they had received so far, but for some reason that logic couldn't place, his instincts refused to accept it. Yet, Logic felt rather obligated to do so by some equally mysterious gut feeling.

"Who and how much?"

Akui handed Logic a book with sheets of paper clipped to the front cover.

"A.P.W.B. Dumbledore..." Sirius said, reading over Logic's shoulder and glancing down at the picture of an old man below the captions. "Having his first name would help. And what are all those extra letters for?"

Logic flipped to the next page and the others fell over.

"It's Albus...Percival...Wulfric... Brian Dumbledore," Logic said read slowly.

"He needs to die," Akui said, hint of desperation in his voice. ("_What's with that _name?" he heard Sirius whisper to the others.)

"It's an _old man_," Spiral said incredulously. "What the heck did he ever do to _you_?"

"Nothing..." Akui mumbled. "But he needs to die. If he doesn't, others people will..."

They were all silent for a moment. "Is he some sort of celebrity or politician? We don't take up jobs against the powerful. Or the rich."

"He's a school principal."

They paused. That's all? "No hostages?" Logic inquired.

"No. This isn't some rescue mission. I just need you to kill him."

"Why?"

"Because other people's lives depend on it."

"...How much?" Logic said, referring to the money. A good sign for Akui, since this meant they were interested.

"All I have are these," Akui said, pulling out a small bag.

Logic looked at the small sac.

"I'm hoping for a bag of credit cards, but I mustn't get my hopes up," he muttered, taking the bag and opening it to find..

"_K'so_...This all real?" he asked Akui in disbelief.

"I wouldn't pay in paper," Akui said incredulously as Logic showed his companions the one hundred percent _real _gold coins.

"How many are there?" Sai asked him calmly, since everyone seemed to be amazed by how much Akui had managed to cram inside that tiny sack.

"I was only able to get six thousand four hundred and twenty Galleons out without my mother finding out.

"Garion?" the blond 'Spiral' asked.

"Our currency. Ga_lleon_. Not 'ri'."

"We don't ordinarily have the letter L in our alphabet, so Spiral sometimes still stumbles over that," Logic said vaguely, not taking his eyes on this. "Currency from Britain?"

"What else?" Akui said.

They spoke among themselves in Japanese much to quickly for Akui to pick up. Akui realized then that they may really be ordinary muggles. Oh Merlin, he hoped this plan wouldn't blow up in his face...

"Ah, in yen, it should be about... three point six million yen," he estimated.

"We take this job," Sirius said immediately.

"I say we vote on it," Spiral said. "For it?"

Everyone, including Spiral himself, raised their hands.

"Ah-right...o..." Spiral said. "We do it."

Akui nodded, looking rather relieved. "All the information you will need is in that book or written on that parchment. I will communicate to you through _this_ Galleon," he said, holding up a particular gold coin from his pocket with writing on the corners. "Don't use this one. I have a Protean Charm and a Translation Charm on this coin, so everything I write on my side of the coin will be sent to and translated to your coin. I'll be sending you the date of the infiltration mission on the rim, so don't lose it. It will heat up when I activate it.."

"Understood," Logic said to him, nodding.

"Outside of this building is a cabinet. There's a bag of dark powder inside one of the bottom drawers with details as to how to use it inside. You take care of that thing, and, on the day of your infiltration, you will shut yourself inside the cabinet and be automatically sent to a castle called Hogwarts. When you finish your job, you exit back through the Vanishing Cabinet as quickly as possible. I wrote as many details about the castle as I could." Akui took a deep breath. "Any _thank you_," he said, bowing deeply to them.

"Don't do that," Logic said to him.

"Why?"

"Bowing is out of style," he shrugged. "To us anyway."

"Thank you again," Akui said. With the exception of Neji, they all tensed, seeing the boy pull something out of his robes. A knife? A gun? A makeshift grenade?

No, a stick.

"..." The seven members stared at Akui. They were prepared for anything but this. What did he expect to do with that stic—

_**BANG!**_

They all shouted and scattered at the sound of the sudden loud noise, fearing gunshot wounds.

"_He's completely gone..._" Destiny said in their native language, clutching his chest like everyone else.

"_Freaky_," Spiral said.

"_Coast clear?_" Mind asked Destiny, who shook his head once, as if twitching.

"_Yeah,_" Destiny said.

Unsure of Destiny's word, they all looked at Sirius for confirmation. The brown-haired man inhaled deeply and nodded. "_All there are close by are rats and a lot of trash_."

And so with a series of 'poof's, the dignified, masked mercenaries were replaced by a handful of teens who barely qualified as young adults.

Logic picked up the book off the dusty ground from where he had dropped it when 'Akui' had dropped it. Blowing off the dust, he read the cover.

"_What's that, Shikamaru_?" Naruto asked him, getting up to his feet.

"_Hogwarts, A History..._" the lazy 'leader' said to them. That was a huge book...

"_I'm not reading through all of _that," Kiba said, scratching Akamaru on the head. "_I vote Shikamaru reads it! Everyone for it_?"

Everyone's except for two hands went up for Yes.

"_Against?"_

Shikamaru and Ino voted No.

"_Hah! Shikamaru reads it. We win!_"

Shikamaru sighed.

* * *

**A few weeks later  
June 18, 1997  
Sakura and Ino's Apartment**

"You're doing this to punish us, aren't you?" Naruto whimpered, looking at the thick stack of papers Shikamaru dropped onto the table. The others yawned, and Sakura and Ino, having finished dealing with their rebellious coffee maker, was pouring coffee and cream out for those who seemed like they needed it the most.

"Yes," Shikamaru said idly, pulling out several packets for each of them. "Yes, I am. We're infiltrating Hoguwātsu today and you've been putting it off for a while. Therefore... I'm sitting all of you guys down and we are going to go through the plan _together_."

This announcement was met with collective groans and complaints.

"Those attending this mission and going to Hogwarts will be... myself, Ino, Kiba, and Naruto."

"_Noooo..._" Kiba moaned.

"The one killing Albus Dumbledore will be...Naruto."

"_Dammit," _Naruto muttered.

"Hah," Kiba said to Naruto, recovering from his previous despair to gloat at the blond. "You're killing the old man..." he said in a singsong voice.

"Why not me?" Neji said to Shikamaru. "I'm the only one not unwilling to go on a mission."

"No offense, Neji, but _you _are no longer reliable," Shikamaru said, avoiding eye contact and burying his face in the books. Neji took a deep breath and sighed.

"I want the next mission."

"And you will get it. So long as your control over your Byakugan is back to normal by that time," he said. He quickly turned to the other shinobi. "Now, each of you have a specific assignment. Naruto does the job. We are _all _backup. I've done my research. I studied the information Akui gave me last month. I took a satellite picture. Hogwarts is somewhere in Scotland, a bit north of Edinburgh, and possibly a bit closer to Aberdeen. I really would have preferred to infiltrate once the school year ended, but that's two days away, and Akui wants it done _tonight_."

"I thought you mentioned before that you couldn't find it in the satellites," Ino said, flipping through pages and pausing on a series of ink-painted blueprints of the Hogwarts grounds and interior floors painted by Sai with Shikamaru's guidance and descriptions.

"I couldn't," Shikamaru said simply. "Which is why it was so difficult to pinpoint it's location. I knew it was somewhere in Britain. An easily accessible place. They did a good job in covering themselves up, but there's one thing that doesn't quite fit. Look at the close-up I got of the train station called 'King's Cross'. There's the _smallest_ signs of a railroad track that extends only a few millimeters above the train station before completely disappearing. Now, if you travel up north-northwest from there, after, let's say, five hours, it completely goes from an industrialized region to a rural area completely covered by trees."

They stared at Shikamaru.

"So?"

"Hogwarts has some sort of weird 'mahou' (_magic) _on the castle to hide itself from normal people. And look, if you look at the clouds over the area and watch some of the foreign weather reports, you can see _slight_ condensation in the area. Meaning they've not only hidden a castle, but a huge lake as well. One the size of a small sea. Most likely salt water. This information is confirmed by the book, Hogwarts, A History, which mentions a 'protector' of Hogwarts that lives deep within its depths. The guardian of this school is an _Architeuthis. _Or, what a person may call it in normal terms, the giant squid. Of course, this one is much larger than the average giant squid and, instead of being only twenty-five feet—"

((A/N: I'd write seven or seven point four meters for the metric system used worldwide, but I think most of my readers are American anyway, am I wrong?))

"_Only_ twenty-five..." Naruto muttered sarcastically under his breath.

"—this one would be about two or three times that large," Shikamaru continued. "Yes, Hogwarts protector is a huge mutated chunk of sushi about seventy feet ((twenty to twenty-one meters)) long."

"Oh my god..." Naruto whimpered, ducking his head down. This was one of the weirdest missions ever.

"Yes. That was just a warning and an explanation as to why I suggest you all _not_ to go anywhere near the water later today," Shikamaru said. "Now, to the _important_ part...

"First, we'll have to manage to cram ourselves in the cabinet. Since it barely fits one person at a time, I'll go first."

"Why you?" Ino asked him.

"Akui was kind enough to supply us with what was labeled, 'Instant Darkness Powder'. It's from Peru, I think," he said. "And considering my specialty, I think it would be best if I went first so that if we are in need of a diversion, I have one ready.

"However, the room we start off in should be secure enough. To make the Room appear, a person has to walk past the section of blank wall three times concentrating hard on what is needed. That means someone inside the room can react more quickly than the person outside. In any case, I'll be going first. Ordinarily, I'd rather have Sakura go first, since she has faster reactions and is smarter than most of us...well, you guys, anyway. However, being our one and only healer for all six of us, we can't risk her on too many missions in uncharted environments.

"Anyway, I'll go first and keep lookout while you guys come in. If anyone finds out about us, I'll bind them. After me, the order will be Kiba and Akamaru, then Naruto, and then Ino. Since the Room of Requirement gives the person anything he or she needs that it can possibly acquire, Kiba will 'want' a window. Nobody will even _think _of wanting it to go away, got it? Now, since the Come and Go Room is—"

"Come and Go?" Naruto asked.

"Different name for the same room," Shikamaru said, looking a bit annoyed with the interruption. "_Anyway, _since the Come and Go Room is on the seventh floor. We can't make jumps _that_ high without repercussions. It's more than risking a broken leg, so do _not_ act recklessly, _Kiba_."

"Heh..." the Inuzuka mumbled shrugging, remembering the last time he overestimated his own abilities.

"You'll scale the wall using _proper equipment_, plus a bit of chakra on your soles, but don't use too much. You will then head for a forest. You can't miss it. According to Akui's information, there's some sort of a heathen man in a hut between the castle and the forest. Don't let him see you, but since it's in the open, you may want to use that hut as a 'rest stop' to make sure no one sees you. You'll be stationed in the forest in your Double-Headed Wolf Form. Don't waste chakra by moving. When you hear your cue, that's when you change."

"What's my cue?"

"I'll get to that in a second. Naruto, you have the busier job. Since we don't have any particularly fast shinobi on us, you'll have to cover more ground with your kage bunshin technique. That's why you're perfect for this job."

"Whoo," Naruto said unenthusiastically.

"Be happy."

"_Yatta!_" the blond exclaimed with convincing enthusiasm, giving Shikamaru an overenthusiastic thumbs up sign. ((A/N: I couldn't resist writing that part. Whenever I hear that, I think of the weird Japanese dudes who go on stage butt-naked, lol)).

"Heh, anyway, your main destinations are the ground level rooms, and the second floor rooms. And, perhaps, the below-ground level, but that's only if it's your last guess. Your first stop on the second floor will be an empty corridor—"

"Eh?"

"When I studied the architecture around the time Hogwarts was made, I had Sai draw it out and it took a while, but I found out where his office _most likely_ is. The second floor. There's a stone gargoyle. All I know is that the entrance is likely to have something to do with that. You'll have to figure it out yourself. On the other hand, we've got radios, so if you're stuck, then tell us all. If there is nothing there, then head towards the ground level. Behind the Great Hall, there are double doors. The one on the right leads to an antechamber and a staff room, where Dumbledore _may_ be. The left door leads outside towards the forest.

"We'll go improvise from there on out if you can't find Dumbledore."

"Then let me go," Neji said. "The Byakugan would be useful for a situation like that, and the mission would be completed much more quickly."

"You're a liability. For now, anyway," Shikamaru added quickly. "Until you regain your control and stop allowing your emotions to get the better of you and hinder your abilities, you will not attend important missions such as this one."

Neji took a deep breath to calm himself, but the weight on his chest and the headache forming in his temples did not loosen or lighten.

"Now, Naruto," Shikamaru continued, "If the mission is failed, it doesn't matter, Tell us on the radio and we'll retreat. If you can't get outside, go to the dungeon. If you can get outside, then get to the forest. Kiba, if you smell Naruto or sense him at all for sure, then you go Double-Headed Wolf form and 'eat' him. Naruto, the moment you sense Kiba, Kawarimi out because he can't slow down."

"I can't?"

"You can't. Because if someone sees you hesitate before 'eating him', they may later find out that his 'death' was planned. It's a small possibility, but still a feasible one. Can't let that happen. Destroy all evidence of ourselves. After the coast is clear, return to your normal forms as quickly as possible and Naruto, follow Kiba up to the tower and scale the walls from the rope you used to get down. We don't want to waste any unnecessary chakra or leave any evidence of our presence. You'll get back up to the Room of Requirement and leave through the cabinet."

"Okay. Wait, why did you want me to go into the dungeons? Before, you said get to the dungeons if possible. That's the last place I want to go!"

"Exactly. No one would expect you to run to the dungeons and hide there. And then, I'll head down myself and help you out."

Ino, who had been quiet and listening for a while, spoke up. "What about me?"

"You'll be in a spot almost as dangerous as Naruto. If Naruto gets caught or seen, then you may end up in an even more dangerous position. If Naruto succeeds without error, then you'll be unnecessary backup, but a good precaution. The moment you come, I want you to leave immediately towards the third floor and wait there, laying low. You'll hear over the radio if we're in trouble."

"Wait, just anywhere on the third floor?"

"No, you stay inside the infirmary. Don't let them see you, and if you do, pretend you're a sick student or something. If you somehow manage to miss the conversation between us three and not hear that this mission is going bad, then keep a watch out at the window. If you see Naruto running out—"

"Wait, it'll be dark."

"Squint hard," Shikamaru advised. "Anyway, if you see Naruto or know that the mission is a failure, I'm going to have to ask you to do something that may be against your morals..."

"What is it?" she asked him, eyes wide.

"You'll need to take over the body of the only school nurse in the entire school and hold everyone in the infirmary hostage."

"...That's all?"she asked incredulously.

"...Yeah."

"Oh, okay then."

"Oh, and you'll also have to figure out how to get your voice on a loudspeaker or something."

"Now _that_ may be a problem, but I'll figure it out," Ino said with a nod.

"Okay. And if I'm still in the dungeon, and Naruto and Kiba are already scaling the tower, you keep on running and if it looks like I'm not going to make it, use the New Approaching Technique to pull me up the stairs."

"That'll be hard, but I'll manage," she said.

"Now for equipment," Shikamaru said, finally done discussing their plans. "We'll need scaling supplies. Don't forget the grappling hooks. Basic medic equipment. Don't forget the needle and thread. You might not have Sakura to heal your wounds for a whole night, and Ino doesn't have as much experience healing as her. Explosion tags and smokescreen just in case. Maybe our proto-soldier pill for backup. One for each of us. Kunai, shuriken, and throwing knives. Maybe poison. No firearms. They're much too loud. Wear dark clothing. It'll be easier, since there's no electricity and most rooms at Hogwarts are lit up by magical fires. Plus, students there generally wear dark clothing, so as a last resort, you may want to disguise yourself as one. That might be all. Review the map of Hogwarts and the print outs right now. We leave in four hours."

Naruto coughed. "In _how long_?"

"Four hours," Shikamaru repeated.

Naruto sputtered incoherently for a moment, and then pointed at the beat up clock on the wall. "_Then why the hell did you wake us up at FOUR-THIRTY IN THE MORNING?_"

-

((A/N: I couldn't really scan the floorplan, but this is a list of the things in the stack of papers that Shikamaru had printed out from English to Japanese so the others could read it more easily. You don't really need to read it.))

Below Ground, generally dimly lit  
--Various dungeons  
--Kitchen  
--Slytherin and Hufflepuff common rooms  
--Potion's classroom  
--Potion professor's office with charms only a wizard could break,  
--A private storage (presumably full of potions)  
Ground-Level  
--Entrance Hall  
--Great Hall; a door behind the raised staff table leads into a hallway that splits into two directions (directly outside or to an antechamber)  
--Large broom cupboard located off the Entrance Hall  
--Staff room  
--Generally unused classrooms  
First Floor  
--Muggle Studies classroom  
--Defense Against Dark Arts classrooms  
--History of Magic classroom  
--Transfiguration professor's office  
Second Floor  
--Haunted girl's bathroom (out of order)  
--Empty corridor with stone gargoyle (perhaps entrance to Headmaster's office?)  
--Suit of armor near DADA office  
--DADA professor's office  
Third Floor  
--statue of humpbacked witch  
--forbidden corridor  
--Charms classroom  
--Hospital Wing  
Fourth Floor  
--library  
--bathroom  
--unused rooms  
Fifth Floor  
--prefects' bathroom  
--small swamp in East wing  
Sixth Floor  
--a boy's bathroom  
Seventh Floor  
--portrait of fat lady  
--Divination classroom  
--Charm's professor's office  
--Room of Requirement ((START HERE))

* * *

Harry pulled out the piece of parchment that was stuffed inside the locket, opened it, and read it in the light of Dumbledore's office. 

_To the Dark Lord,_

_I know I will be dead long before you read this_

_but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. _

_I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. _

_I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, _

_you will be mortal once more._

_R.A.B_

His hands shook when he read this.

This was _not_ a horcrux. Dumbledore had gone through self-inflicted agony, drinking that potion for nothing. They had gone all the way to the cold sea for nothing. They faced the Inferi for _absolutely nothing_.

"As you can see," Dumbledore said to Harry, "we have been duped by our own ally."

"How could this happen?" Harry said. "This—we—the locket..."

"There's no need to feel distraught," Dumbledore said amiably, despite his pale face and weary eyes. "One wrong lead will not be the end of the world. It just means that we may mark off one lead and start on the next. Now... I suppose you ought to get your sleep tonight. Your friends might miss you."

Harry looked up suddenly and look at one of the clocks to see what time it was.

...Neptune o'clock?

That wasn't quite right.

Oh wait, that was Dumbledore's lunascope. He turned to the next clock and found that it was already past midnight.

Which meant that Ron, Neville, and Ginny had been posted outside of the Room of Requirement and Hermione and Luna were outside of Snape's classroom.

With a quick good-bye, Harry ran out towards the stairs to tell his friends—much to his embarrassment—that his suspicions had once again been a false alarm and that everything was safe. Panting as he reached the seventh floor (and realizing bleakly that he'd probably have to run all the way back down to the dungeons to get Hermione and Luna), Harry approached the room of requirement, only to find his three friends missing and a polished door in the middle of the hallway, partly open.

Harry's eyes widened. Had Ron, Ginny, and Neville managed to open the door and confront Malfoy? Why was it so quiet then? Surely they could take on the pale blond, who was hardly up for any wizard's duel, let alone the fact that it would be three-on-one.

Normally, when the door was shut, it automatically returned back into it's usual form—an ordinary wall. However, since the door was still visible...

If there was a person inside, he or she (but more likely he, as in Draco Malfoy) had foolishly left the door ajar.

His heart beating madly, Harry approached the Room of Requirement with a level of stealth he was hardly aware that he had had. He peeked through the tiny crack, only to realize that it was completely dark in the room. Where where the lights?

Harry cracked open the door slightly to get a better view of what was inside.

Wrong move.

A tiny shadow-like tendril that had been laying on the ground unseen had suddenly come to Harry's attention. Mainly because, with his movement, the tendril of shadow immediately thickened and wrapped around his ankle, dragging him inside the pitch-dark room until...

Until he reached the center and realized something odd.

It wasn't that the room was just plain dark inside. It was like the shadow was an entity itself.

He was completely covered in shadows. It was like being trapped within a box with black lining. Plus, his entire body was covered up. And there was a man in the center, standing in front of the dark bodies of his friends. He was kneeling with an odd expression on his face, looking at a parchment on the ground, a thick volume with yellowed pages, and what looked like a muggle headphone.

The man glanced up at Harry only for a moment before returning his attention back to his own—

Wait, that was _Harry's _map he was looking at!

Glancing at the three bodies behind the man, he realized that it was Ron, Neville, and Ginny, with their bodies completely shrouded in this strange, solidified shadow.

"Ro—!"

"Shut," the man said simply when Harry's field of vision was suddenly cut off. Here Harry was with his face and entire body covered in shadows. He couldn't move an inch, though he _did_ feel something odd writhing in his back pocket.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to know what it was.

Harry continued to wiggle around, to do anything he could, when he felt someone's foot on his back, forcing him to stop writhing on the ground like a worm. If it hadn't been such a serious situation, Harry would have noticed with a bit of dry humor that the man was barefooted.

"Stop moving around so much," the man said in a heavily accented voice. Harry could suddenly see the light. Apparently, the man had believed that Harry's presence was of no importance—and. indeed, he was right, since all Harry could do was watch. Harry watched the man mumble to himself in another language, fiddling with the muggle electronic device in his hand, staring at the book on the ground and occasionally glancing at the Marauder's Map.

The intruder had his hair tied up and was squinting at the book with narrowed eyes. Looking rather bored, he snapped the book shut. Harry saw the cover and was almost surprised to see that it was Hogwarts, A History. Glancing at the Marauder's Map with an extremely intrigued look on his face, he traced his fingers on top of certain people, as if testing to see if the moving dots would react. Which they didn't, but that seemed to fascinate the man as well.

Harry took a deep breath and let it out. He needed to... to stay calm and assess the situation like people did in books and on television. Here he was, unable to move. His three friends may or may not be alive. The man who had captured him had done it without a sweat and everything around him was done in _silence_. He had the stealth of a person with years of practice. This person was more experienced than anyone.

'_...Dammit_,' Harry thought to himself. '_It's_ not _Voldemort who's going to kill me..._'

Then again... he wasn't dead yet. This person didn't want him dead? This person didn't know who he was:

Harry Potter, the danger magnet.

And since this person didn't want to kill Harry, then that meant... he was after Dumbledore.

Harry glanced nervously at his friends, trying to crane his neck to see if Ronn, Neville, and Ginny were alright. The man noticed this and scratched his head with an odd 'oh boy...' expression on his face.

"Friends?" he said to Harry, who nodded quickly. He sighed. "They are alive. Cannot move though."

Harry rolled over onto his side, feeling something fall out of the back of his pocket. With his back facing the dark cloud around them and his front facing the literally Dark wizard, blocking the man's view as much as he could.

"Don't bother struggling," the man said. "Feel glad I didn't bind you."

...The man didn't bind him? Then what the hell did he consider Harry and his friends to be right now?! Nevertheless, Harry stopped moving, choosing to stay on his side. If what had left his pocket was what he had thought it was, then there might be hope after all.

Granted it took focus to keep Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Neville bound. If it was like an ordinary magical rope that, once tied, did not need its user's focus and thus would disappear and the first distraction, then yes, they were screwed indeed.

Of course, he couldn't allow himself to give up when his real enemy was Voldemort. He'd have to hope for the best.

BOOM!

The room shook with a resonating explosion of sound that caused the startled man to lose focus, duck, and cover, as if he were reacting to a muggle weapon. A muggle weapon? At a school of _magic_? It was a strange reaction, but not one that Harry spent much time evaluating.

The moment Harry was able to free himself from the loosening shadows, he made a break for the door, running through the cloud of darkness and becoming free—

Oh dangit...

Thick tendrils wrapped themselves around Harry's neck and arms, but it wasn't over yet...

_Sonorus!_ Harry thought to himself, working his first bit of both wandless _and_ nonverbal magic at once for the first time in his life, and luckily, with every hero's ability to succeed at the last moment, he shouted out.

"AN INTRUDER IN HOGWARTS IN THE ROOM OF REQUIRE—"

"..." Harry's message was stopped in midsentence.

'...I think I understand now what the man meant by bound,' Harry thought bleakly to himself as he found himself facing the man. He could still hear the echoes ringing down the staircases. Harry had managed to step outside of the room, but that was all. No more moving for him.

The man quickly went for Harry, looking enraged. Harry closed his eyes, sure that this was the end, when he heard a blissfully familiar voice.

"_Nykterida fantasmius_!"

Ah, the sweet sound of Ginny's voice... shouting the bat-bogey hex. He was saved!

The man was attacked by dozens of Ginny's bat bogeys. And sure enough, Harry saw Ginny standing behind him, in all her redhead glory with a wand in her hand and and a determined, angry look on her face. Ron and Neville were standing beside her, wands drawn and ready to literally curse the hell out of this intruder who was about to attack their best friend.

"Mendoku—"

"_Impedimenta_!" Ron and Neville shouted at the same time at the man before he could finish the incantation for whatever spell he was about to cast. The man's movements slowed down for a second, but when his eyes widened in slow motion as he almost immediately realized that he was not moving with time (which was rather odd, because it often took several seconds for a person to realize that they had been jinxed).

However, just moments later, the man was running down the hallway as if he were completely unaffected by this spell, with the only sign of having been jinxed in the first place was the fact that he was much slower midair than with both of his feet planted firmly on the ground.

"Oh bloody hell... he threw off _both_ spells?" Ron said, his voice full of stunned disbelief as all four of them started running after the intruder. Harry wasn't sure what to say to Ron. That the man had managed to throw off two Impediment Curses without a wand or that he was just abnormally fast so that the spells reduced his speed all the way down to a... to an _ordinary _speed. He said nothing as they ran and Ron explained what was happening.

"...We messed up," Ron said, looking rather devastated as they chased the man around the seventh floor. "We did like you told us. We checked the Marauder's map, and Malfoy was actually in the Slytherin common room, so we didn't think anything big was _really_ going to happen. Me, Ginny, and Neville started keeping watch, just in case, but after an hour, the door appeared. We were stupid and we opened the door, expecting to confront someone when a huge black fog covered us up. We didn't see much, but there were _definitely_ five people in there. Two went out through the window, that guy stayed an kept us all tied up, so after that, we couldn't see anymore. There were two blonds, I think."

They spotted the shadow of the man rounding the corridor towards the stairs.

"You did good, guys," Harry assured them, as they pumped their legs and did their best to catch up. This man was fast, even when he was running strangely, but they were slowly closing the gap between them.

They ran into the staircase, but found that there was no longer any trace of them.

However, Professor McGonagall arrived on the scene, looking slightly out of breath from running up from the first floor to the seventh. "Mr. Potter," she said to them. "I heard your announcement. You said there was an intruder."

"Five of them!" Ron said, pointing towards the staircase. "One went down there and he disappeared!"

"He did something to move shadows around and caught us in them!" Neville said.

"Shadow manipulators...?" Professor McGonagall said, her voice contained some doubt, but more concern. "I haven't heard of such a thing."

Harry looked up at them. "Yes! Shadow manipulators!" he said. "And they're going to kill Professor Dumbledore!"

((A/N: Oh me oh my...))

-

**My Thinking Corner**

I really wanted to add more to this chapter, but I told myself that I wasn't going to stress myself out by writing epic length chapters for each story. One forty page chapter per story is enough for me. I'm starting to want to go back to my Narutotachi Goes to Hogwarts, though I promised myself that I would fix up the previous chapters... -.- Anyway, I'm doing my best to limit myself to the twenties for this fic. If I ever reach thirty-five, please remind me to slap the shit out of myself.

Anyway, um... Hmph, I actually have very little to say.

Oh, what's odd is that one morning, I was putting in my contacts, and later that night, I took out my right contact and put it in the case, and then I took out the second in my case, but found that I already had a contact for the left eye in there. ...Any explanations anyone? Or will this be one of my Unsolved mysteries?

Anyway, you'll find that later in this fic, I'll have references...okay, not _references_, but I'll occasionally use one idea for this story that I've already used for the previous, 'Narutotachi Goes to Hogwarts'.

Oh, in the original draft, I just kept Bad Faith as Bad Faight, but I changed it from Bad Faith to Akui in the first draft because BF was too troublesome to type. I kept on (and still do) end(ing) up typing Bad Faight over and over and over... which drove me beyond the points of insanity.

List of Shinobi with their Current Aliases  
Shikamaru: Logic/Ronri  
Neji: Destiny/Tenun  
Naruto: Spiral/Rasen/Kajou  
Kiba: Sirius/Tenrousei  
Sakura: Renge/Lotus  
Ino: Kokoro/Mind/Heart/Spirit  
Sai: Sai


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Plans Gone Wrong

Shikamaru was first to enter the room, glancing warily at his surroundings. He had heard a little about this room in the volume, Hogwarts, A History, and was expecting something a little bit less... majestic. He was standing in a huge cathedral-sized room, with high windows sending shafts of light down on what looked like a city with walls made up by accumulated trash, with an assortment of things ranging from broken furniture and tattered books to jewels and what appeared to be eggshells of vivid crimson and specks of gold, a size that would have put an ostrich to shame.

Dusting off his clothes, he stepped over the skeleton of a five-legged something and glanced down at a ratty book that said _Advanced Potion-Making_.

Potions...

So this really _was_ some sort of weird cult school.

Naruto, Ino, Kiba, and Akamaru, in what they called his 'Kiba-lookalike' form, soon followed after until all five of them were standing in the rubble of treasures.

Without waiting for any precautionary orders, Naruto stepped forward towards the exit and opened the door. He jumped back in surprise when two boys and a girl about their age tumbled in, probably leaning against the door.

"...Shikam—Log—..._Ronri_?" Naruto looked at Shikamaru, not sure what to do. It was the genius who was supposed to deal with issues like this.

Shikamaru pulled out a small leather pouch and threw it towards Naruto and the three other kids. Naruto jumped past them, out of the way and started running down the hall as the shadowy cloud dragged the three inside.

"I'll take care of them," Shikamaru said to the other in Japanese, covering their faces in his shadow. Thinking logically was Shikamaru's strong suit, and doing so, he realized that the fact that they say his face didn't mattered as much as it seemed. They only used thin layers of genjutsu to look older to save chakra, but it sufficiently disguised them enough to avoid being outright identified. And if, perhaps, someone noticed the similarities between their real faces and their older, genjutsu-induced form, then they would have to ask themselves why they would suspect that the adults were able to turn into young children.

The Kibas nodded. The real Kiba tied a thick rope outside the window and Akamaru climbed down first, partly climbing and partly sliding down the side of the tower, and Kiba followed after.

"I'll be going now," Ino said, playfully saluting to Shikamaru. "Wish me luck!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"_Let us go..._!" the red-haired boy shouted through the shadow, unable to see. He spoke in English, but Shikamaru and Ino had little problems difficulty understanding it.

"Honestly, does this boy really thing we would?" Ino asked him. Shikamaru tightened the shadow's grip on their faces so that they couldn't talk either. He didn't want to listen to their yelling for the next hour, whether it was muffled or not.

"Come back soon," Shikamaru said before Ino left. "Our shift starts at two."

Ino grinned and gave him a thumbs up sign before leaving swiftly. Only five minutes later and already starting to get rather bored, Shikamaru looked through the trash, going from treasure to treasure and inspecting each carefully.

Some of the books looked rather interesting. One was titled _Moste Potente Potions_. Some of the illustrations included a man who seemed to have been turned inside out and a witch sprouting several extra pairs of arms out of her head. A fascinating read, actually. Of course, after attempting to read one book that screamed in his face and another that attempted to take his arm off like a man-eating book, Shikamaru decided to stick with his nice, reliable copy of Hogwarts, A History.

Cracking it open once again, he skimmed through various sections that seemed rather important. There was a ceiling enchanted to reflect the sky. Hm, now he wanted one... They also mentioned ways to repel what they called 'Muggles', or ordinary folk who didn't know how to use magic. Maybe, if he could figure out how to do it himself, he could cast one over their apartments, where they ordinarily held meetings.

Last time, there was an unpleasant situation where the tenant had marched inside the room and demanded that they fix the hole/tunnel they made in the wall.

"Damn," Shikamaru muttered, realizing that he had forgotten to put on his headphones.

"Mmmmmph! Mm mnphhhblt!" the chubby boy said, struggling.

"Shut up all of you!" the genius said, putting on the headphone and trying to hear over the static. "Rasen? Kokoro? Tenrousei? ...Akamaru? Any of you, respond now!"

He waited for a response...

And waited...

And waited.

Shikamaru frowned as he listened in the headphones, listening for the responses of any of his teammates. He heard nothing but static.

Well...

This wasn't good. Shikamaru slammed open the Hogwarts history book and began skimming again. All radios going down at once? Dammit, there must be _something_ about this widespread equipment malfunction in this book. It seemed to have everything. He should have looked through it more carefully!

"'Koro! ...Rasen, report!" After several moments waiting for a response, Shikamaru began swearing loudly, abandoning the book Akui had given them to rummage through the hundreds of others. He stepped over the redhead's body when...

Wait a minute...

He paused, with something curious catching his eye.

There was a piece of parchment left on the ground. It had probably fallen from the redhead's hands, but...

Shikamaru's eyes widened, seeing something move. _Magic really exists_.

It looked like a plain old ancient piece of parchment, but on the cover, it said something about a moon, a padded foot, a worm's tail, and prongs. Folding it open, his suspicions were confirmed. This was some sort of magical map in which a person's name and location could be found!

Studying it closely, he found their names in Hiragana, different from the names written in English. At least it was a little easier to find his own team amongst the hundreds of other students who roamed around the school past curfew. The Room of Requirement was not drawn on there, so the mapmakers probably was not aware of this rooms existence.

The creators of this map, however, did know of several secret entrances in and outside the school that would have come in handy if he had known about these passages earlier..

Akamaru and Kiba already laying low on the outskirts of the forest. Naruto had already reached the fifth floor and was making a few quick rounds before he moved to the next. Ino, whose purpose was not to search for the headmaster of this school, was on the third floor heading straight towards the infirmary.

He inspected each and every one of the names, looking for an Albus Dumbledore, and studied the names of all suspicious activity. There was a Draco Malfoy pacing in a Slytherin room. Two students were lingering around the potions office. In the middle of the night? Odd.

Shikamaru looked down as his digital watch. A cheap one he had managed to filch from a rather shady seller. Well, like his headphones, it seemed rather dead. He glanced at a nearby grandfather clock to see the time. Wait a minute... there were several hands on this clock, each bearing the name of a person, and most pointing at the word 'deceased'.

Rather curious, he removed a 'Something Black' and scribbled his own name into the back of that paper. He pinned it into the hand and it went straight to 'Borderline Risky'. Interesting.

Something gonged. A _real_ clock. He jumped and looked in the direction of the owl popping in and out of the real grandfather clock. Midnight. This nearly confirmed his prediction of Hogwarts' location. They were in the right time zone and the people here spoke English.

They had been in two separate time zones, practically half a world away. They had passed through this distance in a matter of seconds. Barely even seconds. All they had to do was climb inside a cabinet and close the door!

Instantaneous travel...

Shikamaru inhaled sharply, realizing just what this meant. Why didn't he see it before? The book mentioned something about Apparation wards. To apparate was to transport oneself from one place to another by dissapparating and reapparating. While it was impossible with ordinary 'muggle' techniques, was it possible that wizards could surpass the laws of physics by entering an alternate dimension briefly and reappearing in a desired location?

The wizards broke all concepts of logic. He couldn't understand. For them... it seemed that there was no such thing as logic, no law of physics, and absolutely nothing that prevented the wizards from doing whatever they wished to the society that Shikamaru and his friends had spent two years struggling in..

But that was not important.

Here they were, able to climb into a cabinet and reappear nine time zones away, almost literally on the other side of the world! There were 'clocks' that recorded one's well being, potions that could...could do things, and they could bring life to inanimate objects! Like man-eating books that served no real purpose!

Shikamaru leaned back on a broken piece of furniture. After removing the shackles that had crawled up his arms, he knotted them together, irritated, and continued to think about all the possibilities.

Theoretically, these wizards were similar to the shinobi, as the general public here was almost the equivalent to the civilian nations back home, though their citizens of Konoha were very aware of their shinobi people and villages.

They were forced into this world through a shinobi technique, and stuck here. Maybe they could return to their own home through a wizard technique?

Shikamaru suddenly remembered the day Akui had given them the mission. To leave, he had 'Apparated' away. It was entirely possible...

Considering all of the wild-goose chases he had sent his friends on and the huge number of disappointments that had received in return, Shikamaru took a deep breath to calm himself and reorganize the torrent of ideas and possibilities running through his mind at the moment.

He will tell his friends about it, he told himself. Definitely. When he finds out more about it, of course. There was no need to send them on another wild goose chase. They didn't need any more danger than necessary.

Right now, he needed to focus on the situation at hand—finding out how to communicate with his team. Using his chakra to hold the Peruvian Instant Powder like a dark cloud literally floating above his head and keeping a tendril flat on the ground outside of the open door, Shikamaru reopened Hogwarts, A History and took a deep breath to calm down.

Think.

Almost everything that had to do with Hogwarts was inside this book. He just needed to look a bit more closely and try to figure out what was happening to their radio set. Were they just crap or did the actual school have something to do with this?

He read slowly and squinted at the English words, knowing he was in for a major headache later. He heard a footstep in the back of his mind and would have paid little attention to such a small thing, being in a school where kids all over were probably wandering down the halls as they skipped curfew, when he sensed someone stepping on the shadow outside of the door.

Seizing this person's leg and then the rest of their body with the shadow, he dragged the person inside and wrapped him up tightly. He glanced at the dark-haired teen who had stumbled into the room and glanced down at the magical map.

"Harii...Pottā..." (1) he muttered out loud under his breath. The name itself was extremely plain and inconspicuous, but the hairs on the back of his neck told him to mark that name in his mind, because he had a feeling that there was something rather important about this boy.

Nevertheless, Shikamaru was ready to continue to ignore him when he heard the boy look behind him (presumably spotting the three bodies of his schoolmates, who had already given up on moving). He had a sharp intake of breath and Shikamaru got up quickly, knowing what the boy was about to do.

"Ro—!" Harii was about to say when Shikamaru tightened the shadows on his face.

"Shut," he said, looking a bit annoyed. The boy writhed around on the ground like a worm on the sidewalk or a fish on the ground. He didn't care whether the boy wasted his own energy trying to escape a weaker version of his shadowbind, but allowing him to struggle would use up more chakra than Shikamaru needed to use, and he _hated_ putting an effort into things.

Holding all four of them for so long was using enough chakra already. He loosened the shadow holdings and studied the map a bit once more, making sure that no one else was approaching the Room of Requirement.

Trying to study the map and the book at the same time and unsure of which took precedence, Shikamaru chose to glance down at the map and spotted Naruto approaching Dumbledore at a slow speed, relying on stealth.

Good.

He looked up at Harii, noticing a worried loom on his face. "Friends?" he said to the captive, who nodded. "They are alive. Cannot move though."

The boy rolled over onto his side and stopped his vain attempts to escape, which was a real relief. It seemed to take a bit more chakra than usual to detain a wizard. Like trying to hold a shinobi.

"Don't bother struggling," he reminded Harry one more time. "Feel glad I didn't bind you."

Shikamaru chose not to respond to the incredulous look on Harii's face. What was so weird about that comment? He did say it in proper English, right? Shikamaru heard a small 'tap' on the floor, but paid little attention to it. The map mentioned nothing about any other person, and his four captives were completely unmoving.

The slightly open door to the Room of Requirement creaked slightly. Shikamaru's senses went off. Something wasn't quite right. Sure, his first three had stopped moving and had given up a while ago, but this Harii Pottā boy... for some reason, Shikamaru's senses told him not to underestimate this kid. There was something about him that told him 'he wouldn't have given up so easily!'

Getting up to inspect the hallway himself, Shikamaru noticed something small and black running down the hallway.

...Shit!

He didn't know what it was, but it couldn't be good. He took out a kunai, ready to throw it at the black running object when there was a huge 'boom!'

Shikamaru ducked, having already associated large sounds with firearms after two years in the muggle world. Shikamaru realized that he had also lost control of the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder.

And shit again!

Harii ran past Shikamaru and out into the corridor.

Oh no he didn't...

Shikamaru didn't have time to make contact with the Darkness powder and used his own shadow to chase after Pottā. He was about to let out a sigh of relief as the shadow tendrils wrapped around him when there was a deafening announcement.

"AN INTRUDER IN HOGWARTS IN THE ROOM OF REQUIRE—"

Shikamaru this time used his shadow bind to cause Harry to be unable to move. Once properly bound, Shikamaru held his kunai out. It was originally meant for that weird rat sound-maker and he would rather avoid situations in which he was forced to kill unnecessary civilians, but it couldn't be helped.

Shikamaru went for the boy when—

"_Nykterida fantasmius_!" a girl shouted. Damn! He had forgotten about the boy's friends. He spun around and was face to face with a countless number of dark creatures that clawed at his face like little imps. They did little to harm him, but they were as distracting as they were annoying.

He had forgotten about Ronarudo, Nebiru, and Jineruba. Or... that probably wasn't right in English... Ronald, Neville, and Ginerva? Whatever... He didn't feel like mulling that over at the moment. Especially when he was going to get mauled by untrained combatants. If that happened, Naruto would _never_ let him hear the end of it.

"How troubl—" Shikamaru was about to mutter, readying himself to use his shadow needle technique when the other two boys pointed their magic sticks at him and shouted out some sort of incantation.

"_Impedimenta_!"

All of a sudden, the two redheads, the chubby one, and Harii were moving as quickly as the shinobi themselves.

Shikamaru paused for a moment, but then his eyes widened, realizing that their speed had not increased, but his had dramatically decreased to one forth his original speed. The bat-like creatures were still in his face, which was rather annoying, it was four-on-one, and he was moving extremely slowly. Which meant...

Shikamaru applied chakra to the soles of his feet and ran for all he was worth.

After the first few steps, he realized that he was slow in mid-air as well. Which means that he'd have to run in a gliding motion, in which his feet remained in contact with the ground so that he could maintain his chakra-powered speed without wasting any time floating in midair. Reaching the staircase, he had already calculated in his mind the speed and energy it would have taken to run all the way down the stairs to the dungeon in comparison to the speed it would take if he just chose to jump over the railings of the stairs and fall all the way to the bottom.

Which he did.

* * *

Naruto crept silently down the hallway, his kage bunshins on each floor. He honestly didn't trust a copy of himself to do the job. One hit and they're gone, plus Dumbledore would be alerted of their presence. 

There was one kage bunshin for each floor, disguised as a student by using genjutsu. He and two others were on the second floor, where Shikamaru had predicted the headmaster's office would be. Looking around, one kage bunshin located the suspected entrance—a stone gargoyle. In fact, it was almost definitely the entrance to the headmaster's office, as a dark-haired boy with glasses had ran out of a secret entrance just moments ago.

He dispelled the kage bunshin quickly and headed in the direction of the stone gargoyle until he was face to face with the entrance itself.

Now, all he needed was to figure out how to get inside. Naruto suspected it was some sort of high-level genjutsu at work here, but there was no telling for sure. He'd kill for Sakura to be here at the moment. She could probably figure this thing out.

There was probably some sort of password required to gain entrance to this office. To set up some sort of identity scanning device would probably be 'too troublesome', in the name of the shadow master's childhood motto. Naruto's sensitive hearing picked up heavy footsteps down the hallway. Hiding himself among the suits of armors using a henge, he watched a morbidly obese old man waddle into the office.

"_Fizzing whizbee_," the walrus-like man said. His mustache reminded Naruto of some sort of strange tusks, and it took all of Naruto's newly honed self-control to avoid laughing at the image he presented himself in his mind.

Of course, any traces of laughter were replaced by surprise then the stone gargoyle stood up and stepped to the side to allow the old man entry.

'So, _that_ was the password... ' Naruto thought to himself. He waited for a few minutes, waiting for the fat man to leave. Dumbledore could possibly be in a room with many people, but the less, the better. Moments later, the fat man left and, once he was out of sight, Naruto dispelled his genjutsu and approached the stone gargoyle.

"Fizzing whizbee...?" Naruto said, uncertainly, but the gargoyle stepped aside for him as well. Making sure his genjutsu disguised himself flawlessly as an older man, he slowly stepped onto the stairs and was mildly surprised when, after going through the two walls that had parted, the stairs began to move like an escalator, slowly carrying him up the spiral staircase.

Approaching a door with a brass griffin-shaped knocker, Naruto tilted his head and looked inside the room through the crack on the bottom of the floor.

Inside was a large and extremely impressive circular room with windows. He could see a huge number of portraits in the background, though it was not very clear, with the room illuminated by candlelight and lamplight.

There was a desk, a hat, and a sword on the wall, as well as a burning fireplace.

It was empty. Naruto gently pushed the door open and looked inside. The portraits were drawn oddly, all with sleeping occupants. Everything inside seemed to be extremely expensive, ancient, or both. The polished desk had a silver ink pot and a scarlet quill, presumably from the sleeping bird. And even the _bird's_ perch was made of gold.

Naruto let out a sigh. It seemed that no one was awake in this castle. Not very many, anyway.

Not that this surprised him. It was probably Ino, working her magic. ((A/N: crappy pun _intended_))

Glancing around, Naruto spotted what appeared to be an oversized dumbwaiter.

Adjusting his headphone and remembering that he had discovered earlier that it was faulty, Naruto pulled out a small printout of an estimated Hogwarts map. The dumbwaiter/elevator probably led up or down the northwest tower.

'_Well..._' Naruto thought to himself, opening it to step inside. '_...Time to take a chance._'

Naruto felt an uncomfortable jerk as it immediately started upward. After the elevator slowed to a stop, Naruto slowly opened the door to find himself in the personal quarters of Albus Dumbledore.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore allowed Harry to leave, feeling exhausted, not to mention rather disappointed with himself. R.A.B... Dumbledore was too weary to list the huge number of possible suspects who the initials 'R.A.B.' could stand for... 

Not very long after, Horace had stepped inside his office to brag about how Gwenog had given him front row tickets to a preliminary quidditch game preceding the annual Quidditch world cup. It was the Harpies versus the Tengu. Dismissing Slughorn as quickly as possible so that he could allow himself a much deserved rest, Dumbledore closed his eyes.

And reopened them to find a man holding a wickedly sharp knife at his throat. A kunai, to be exact. He noticed several noticeable markings on the palm of his hand. Runes.

Dumbledore waited and stared at the man straight in the eye, receiving images of struggles, adventures, and a large village with bright blue skies and warm weather.

The man hesitated, probably distracted by the flashes of his own memories.

Stopping his use of Legilimency, as he had seen enough about his attacker, Dumbledore used another nonverbal spell to paralyze the boy.

Forced under the Full-Body Bind, the boy fell to the floor. Dumbledore hid his surprise when the illusion the boy was maintaining had disappeared, revealing a teenage boy with whisker marks on his face.

"I would ordinarily ask what your purpose here was..." Dumbledore said in a soft voice, feeling rather tired. He reached for his wand and pulled it off his stand. "However, I think I find that obvious enough."

The boy glared at him, but closed his eyes, forcing himself to look rather calm. For a moment, Dumbledore was sure that he had been about to concede defeat when...

The boy suddenly shouted out with astonishing volume and ran out of the room, apparently breaking out of the spell, a remarkable defeat for someone who seemed completely inexperienced in terms of magic.

Nevertheless, Dumbledore activated the wards in office, preventing the intruder any leave. The door would not open for anyone without Dumbledore's permission. There was no need to rush. The boy wouldn't be leaving his office any time soon.

Or so he thought.

Dumbledore arrived in his office, however, puzzled to find that there was no one inside of the office, and the door remained shut. Odd...

Puzzled, Dumbledore turned around and found a huge hole in his window.

As if someone had decided to jump out in desperation.

The intruder must have been really desperate...

...Because the tower was over ninety meters up high in the air. Despite the odds of the boy actually surviving the fall, Dumbledore glanced down, searching for any signs of a body.

Sure enough, he spotted a blond figure dressed in dark clothes. However, the boy wasn't as dead as Dumbledore expected, as he was dragging himself away on his hands and knees at a curious speed.

This was when Dumbledore's suspicions became a bit more than just suspicions.

* * *

Kiba waited in the bushes with Akamaru by his side, having a heated, purely scientific discussion about what went into hot dogs. 

"I'm not stupid! ...Take that back!" Kiba said, pinching Akamaru's ears. Akamaru playfully bit him in the leg.

"...OWOWOWOW! Akamaru, no! I don't have any fur!" Kiba whimpered. "Mercy, mercy! Uncle! White flag! Belly up! I give up, I give up...!"

Kiba laughed and rolled over onto his back, belly-up, and Akamaru released him.

Kiba tapped on his headpiece. The static-y sound had long since disappeared since he had left the Hogwarts grounds, but he still received no response from anyone still inside, which wasn't a good thing.

"Heh, I wonder what's taking Naruto so long...?" Kiba said, waiting just in case. He really did need to be careful. If Naruto succeeded without being seen, he was to head directly back to the Room of Requirement. And since radios were down, he didn't want to be left behind.

"I know, I know, just be patient... Ah, there he is..." Kiba said, hearing heavy breathing in the headpiece.

"_Oi, Naruto. I see you've gotten out of Hogwarts_," he said through the headpiece.

"_Kiba? Where are you?_"

"_In the forest, Uzumaki. Where I'm _supposed_ to be,_" Kiba said. "_I'm guessing this is a failed mission_?"

There was a pause, which was enough for Kiba to understand what happened.

"_Sorr_—"

"_Coming..._" Kiba said, cutting him off. He applied a bit more chakra to his nose. "_You're being tailed by three. I'll be there in two seconds so get ready for a Kage-kawarimi, Uzumaki._"

"Jinjū Konbi Henge: Sōtōrō, ("Man Beast Combination Transformation: Double-Headed Wolf")!"

The man-beast combo charged out of the bushes. He could not go at full-speed, of course. Naruto had refused to allow Akamaru to 'mark' him earlier before they went, and he didn't want to end up tearing the real Naruto apart anyway.

Seeing the blond mop of hair, Kiba immediately targeted it and scooped up Naruto between his jaws.

"_FLUFFY_!" a huge man (by human standards, of course) who stood up to Kibamaru's haunches bellowed loudly in English. Kiba paused, hesitating to crush Naruto, as he was unsure whether or not his one was a Kage Bunshin or not. "_PUT HIM DOWN_!"

Taking a chance, Kiba clamped his jaws shut and crushed a kage bunshin in his canines. The giant of a man and a red-haired man swore loudly and a woman with mousy brown hair gasped.

"_Oh my god!_"

Immediately, Kiba-maru bounded off, with the large man shouting after them. Kiba paid little attention to the slight weight hiding in his fur. After gaining a good distance from the three wizards, Kiba-maru stopped running to let Naruto climb out of their fur. Both heads sneezed. The whole forest smelled rather bad...

"Thanks," Naruto said to them, taking deep breaths. He grinned nervously, fiddling with the marks on his forearms. "That was a close one."

Kiba and Akamaru looked right and left. The strange smell that was the forest... something wasn't quite right. It was definitely all around, in the trees and such, but something didn't seem quite right...

("_...Say..._" Kiba, Akamaru, and Naruto heard a distance away, "_Now that I think about it... Hagrid, wasn't Fluffy a dark brown dog? One with _two_ heads_?")

Naruto, Kiba, and Akamaru froze, but not because of what the wizards were saying. Because standing in front of them was the hugest living thing they had ever seen.

It was about six meters tall, which was rather large, even in comparison to Kiba's five. Of course, size didn't mean much. After all, fighting Ukon and Sakon those...four—no, about five years ago, they were half his size and he got the crap beaten out of himself!

"GRAWP FIND INTERUDA!" the _thing_ said.

O.O

Naruto and Kiba continued to stare.

"GRAWP PLAY WID BIG PUPPY!"

_'Oh hell no.'_

Kiba and Akamaru turned tail and ran. Or, they tried to. They yipped loudly and made a break for it when 'Grawp' grabbed their tail, pulling them back. The moment _it _touched their fur, Kiba-maru growled, hackles raised and all shock forgotten. _Nobody_ touches the tail! It was _taboo_!

Snarling angrily, Kiba bit Grawp's hand, but they were knocked upside the head and were left dazed for a moment. He hadn't marked Grawp with Akamaru's piss earlier, so the technique was quite useless if he kept on missing. Plus, he couldn't use a technique like that without a specific target without hitting Naruto.

"Kiba!" Naruto shouted. "No fooling around!"

'Does it _look_ like I am?' Kiba wanted to growl, but he realized why Naruto was so alarmed. He smelled the three wizards approaching them. Akamaru bit one arm, and Kiba bit the other, but that was all they could do as they pushed forward towards the giant.

Kiba and Akamaru's double-headed wolf technique was an extremely risky technique to use. It used an insane amount of chakra, therefore often requiring immediate backup close enough to arrive on the scene after the end of the fight, but far enough so that they don't get in the way and are injured by his own attacks. Plus, it was difficult to attack without any momentum. Given a certain distance to attack, and Kiba was a spinning force of nature. However, holding him down or back gave him a rather big problem.

No momentum meant no killer force to attack the enemy with. Unable to move, Kiba heard several voices shout out different jutsus.

"_Incarcerous_!"

"_Locomotor_ _Mortis_!"

"_Stupefy_!"

They all shouted at the same time. Kiba-maru found themselves wrapped tightly in ropes, unable to move, and next to them, Naruto—who was hit by the latter two spells—didn't move.

'Crap...' Kiba thought. At this rate, they were going to run out of chakra very quickly. There were only minutes left before Kiba and Akamaru would be completely drained and would have to revert back to their previous separate forms.

"Tha's def'nitely no' Fluffy," the big one said, putting his hand on Kiba's snout, much to his annoyance. With this man's arrival, the giant's behavior had immediately become calm and docile.

"...You brought one back, Hagrid...?" the redheaded man said, looking at Grawp with an amazed look on his face.

"Couldn' help it, Bill," Hagrid said somberly in response. "Y'see, 'e's... 'e's actually my half-brother."

... Not much of a family resemblance was there? Was it not for the fact that Hagrid and Grawp were almost equally hairy, Kiba never would've guessed.

"'e was the runt of the group and everyone was pickin' on 'im," Hagrid continued.

RUNT? If Grawp was the runt, when what did that make Hagrid? The mini-sized midget? ...And just how big where the others?

"I've never heard of a two-headed dog before," the woman said. The three had left Naruto's unconscious body on the ground and were inspecting himself and Akamaru closely. "A three-headed runespoor...a two headed runespoor who bit off their middle head...and a three-headed dog..."

"Well, Tonks, I _did_ find a corpse with seven heads in Egypt..." Bill said ('...What the hell?' Kiba thought), "...but I don't think this is the same case."

_Release!_ Kiba thought, on his last reserves of chakra.

There was a huge amount of smoke and he found himself still bound in ropes, which seemed to automatically refit themselves to him.

"A _boy!"_

Oops, no energy for genjutsu.

Kiba glared at them venomously. How to get out, how to get out...? Let's see...

"A werewolf?"

"I don't think werewolves could do that..."

"Maybe it's some sort of special rank as a werewolf? Where's Remus when you need him?"

Kiba wiggled slightly, feeling sluggish and exhausted, but understanding that they could not afford capture, narrowing their already meager numbers all the way down to only five members of their 'family'. They needed to get out of here...

Kiba, realizing that there was only one way out of this, winced as he bit the tip of his tongue. Sucking on the blood for a moment, Kiba called upon the last of his chakra reserves for a final attack, hoping for the best that Naruto would come too afterwards and help them in their getaway.

'_Jūjin Bunshin_(Beast Human Clone),' Kiba thought to himself. There was a 'poof' of smoke as he chanced into his new form.

"_What on earth...? But it's not even the full moon yet!_" the woman said in surprise.

The rope stretched to accommodate and restrain his new form, but it was not malleable enough to withstand his Gatsūga. Spinning and tearing himself loose of the ropes, Kiba leaped into the air and lunged towards the closest target available, who just so happened to be the red-haired Bill.

There wasn't much he could see with the spinning, but Kiba smelled blood. Should he risk or venture a lick? Kiba landed and skidded in the dirt and inspected the damage he and Akamaru had done. The red-haired man was on the ground, the woman was shocked and looking rather horrified, and the huge hairy man was bleeding slightly, which was rather surprising, considering the strength of Akamaru's attack.

Kiba could feel the blood on his tongue already dissipating, as well as the short burst of chakra that had come with it.

He took in one last whiff of air and then cut off the chakra to his nose, as well as his taste and his hearing. Might as well conserve as much as he can. Though, much to his relief, he _did_ sense a rescue coming before he withdrew his chakra.

With a dangerously low amount of chakra left, Kiba was prepared to fight to the death. ...Almost. So it was lucky for Kiba that, according to their reactions to blood, violence, and injury, these three (and the giant) that neither the giant man nor the wand-brandishing woman was used to such fights.

Kiba ran forward again, but suddenly saw bright lights. No, it wasn't the spell. He gronaed, feeling as if the giant had thrown a tree at him or something. He paused.

Correction: the giant _had_ thrown a tree at him.

And a dazed Kiba now had a wand and an umbrella pointed at his head. If he had been unaware of the oddities of these wizards, he probably would have felt less anxious about the whole situation. Kneeling on his knees, completely still, Kiba sifted through his somewhat limited English vocabulary and only uttered the words.

"_We win._"

"_What are you talking about_?" the woman said suspiciously. Kiba lifted an arm to point at a bird perched in the tree. The large man and the woman jumped seeing it, suspecting another attacker. Instead, the bird spoke to them.

"We have twenty-five hostages," the swallowtail summon said in Japanese. "One professor and two students down in the dungeons as well as one nurse and twenty one students in the infirmary."

"_I think it's trying to say something_," the man said, not understanding the other language.

"_We have twenty-six hostages. Care to kill me_?" Kiba said smartly to them in their language. "_The proof is in that bird's claw. What kind of wizard would willingly give up one's only means of defense_?"

"_That's Poppy's wand! How d—!_"

"_Wake my friend up, toss away your wands, put away your giant, and let us go free, and the kids go free_," Kiba ordered, now with no sign of any of the previous arrogance, as there was no time to fool around with this mission falling apart right all around their ears.

Kiba tensed when the woman approached Naruto's body. Akamaru was not in a condition to fight. "_Wait_."

"_What is it_?" the woman asked him.

Kiba dragged himself over to the unconscious redhead's body and pulled out a knife from his pouch, holding it at the neck. "_Just a precaution. You kill my friend, I kill yours_."

Nodding shakily, the woman pointed her wand at Naruto. "_Rennervate_," she said in a quiet voice, and Naruto jerked up, wide awake and looking around with an alarmed look on his face.

"What happened?" he demanded in Japanese after finding himself lying at the woman's feet. He jumped up to his own feet and backed away.

Kiba ignored him for the time being. "I'll explain later," he said to Naruto before shifting his attention back to the wizards. "_I am going to put away my knife, and you are going to place your weapons on the ground and leave quickly. My companions and I will run and you will not follow._"

"_You don't have anything on us_," Tonks said uncertainly. "_If we take _you _two hostages—_"

"_Then we'll kill your kids. Do you consider our lives equal to that of twenty-four children? I'm flattered,_" Kiba said. "_Weapons down. _Now."

Reluctantly, Tonks and Hagrid dropped their wand and umbrella to the ground. They and 'Grawp' backed away slowly. Naruto got up to make a break for it, but...

"A little help here would be nice..." Kiba said, looking rather disgruntled. Naruto looked at Kiba, a little surprised, but used two kage bunshin to help Kiba and Akamaru make a run for it anyway.

"What happened?" Naruto asked.

"Well, we were on a mission and you failed to kill D—" Kiba began, purposely annoying Naruto when the blond interrupted him.

"After I was out! I meant after I was out!" he said hastily. "You're being stupid on purpose!"

"Am not."

"Are too!"

"Am not."

"Are too!"

"Am not."

This went on for a while.

Arriving at the foot of the tower, they looked up and sweatdropped.

"...Well damn," Kiba said, scratching his head. "Well, who's first?"

"I've got pieces of glass in my leg from when I jumped out of the tower window," Naruto said pointing up.

Squinting in the distance, Kiba spotted a hole in a window at the top of a tower. "...You fell from all the way up there without equipment with only cuts? No broken leg or anything?"

"Oh yeah, that too," Naruto said, pausing to stare at his bloodied legs, though they had already begun to heal. The cuts on his hands and face had already completely disappeared, and only the blood remained.

"Your tolerance for pain is abnormal," Kiba said. "Well, Akamaru and I are going to be pretty chakra deprived after this, but we'll go up first, hopefully before we run out completely."

"Are you running on blood?" Naruto asked him.

"Yeah," Kiba said, biting his tongue again. Drawing and 'recycling' his chakra, Kiba applied it all to his feet, running up the side of the wall, managing it all the way to the top on only nine seconds, which was quite a feat after everything he was putting his body through tonight, and after over a year of slacking off. Reaching the tower, Kiba found himself alone in the room.

No Shikamaru, no three hostages, and not a single sign of even a speck of the shadow cloud around.

Something must have happened. Which would explain why both Shikamaru and Ino were not in this room. Pulling up the room, Naruto and Akamaru were making their way up as well, though a little bit slower.

As soon as Naruto and Akamaru approached the 'window' in the Room of Requirement, Kiba left to open the cupboard and shut himself inside.

* * *

Ino had been watching through the window in the old woman's body for a while, skimming through information and memories and occasionally looking outside the window in search of the telltale sign of a huge white dog. 

Ino glanced through the woman's memories and found the most bizarre afflictions she had ever seen in her life. One particularly common memory was one of a dark haired boy with messy hair and green eyes. He even had his own bed reserved out for him in this infirmary.

There was another incident with a girl who was turned into some sort of morbid human-cat hybrid but wouldn't tell the nurse what she had done to bring such a thing upon herself.

One boy was puking snails—particularly gross, in Ino's opinion.

And then... there was the information about Dumbledore. Interested in their supposed targe, she delved deeper into Poppy Pomfrey's mind to find out more about Alfred Percy Wulbus Burian Bumbledore.

Or whatever his whole name was.

Ino 'read' through Pomfrey's memories and was immediately overcome by a strong feeling of annoyance. Dumbledore was the one to find the twelve uses of dragon blood. He was an expert alchemist and spoke twenty-three different languages. He also defeated some man named Grindelwald. Not only that, but he was the founder and leader of some secret crime-fighting secret group, a part of some odd version of the 'United Nations', and a judge as well.

_Just_ a headmaster indeed!

What kind of ordinary headmaster was a nominee for a _ministry_!

Getting annoyed that Shikamaru had agreed with an assassination mission on practically a _celebrity—_even if he was unaware of that information itself—infuriated Ino. If it hadn't been for that Akui kid, they wouldn't be involved with something like this! It was way too dangerous for themselves and bad for business! Plus, getting caught could mean some serious charges.

Which meant that if they got caught by officials, Ino would have a lot of work to do...

Pulling herself out of Poppy's thoughts, she looked outside and nearly fell over. Dammit!

Looking in the forest outside, Ino could see a huge amount of movement, with dust getting kicked up and trees being knocked around.

Reviewing over some incantation that activated some sort of ward on the infirmary that she had found in the mediwitch's mind, she locked the doors tight so that no student could leave without the secret word that only Poppy and now Ino knew in this room. And, of course, with Ino having taken over Poppy's mind, it wasn't that hard to see that Ino was in full control of the situation at hand.

Vaguely wondering in the back of her mind if the summoning contract would even work in another person's body, Ino retreated back to her own unconscious body, on the bed.

As Poppy Pomfrey attempted to recover for a moment from Ino's possession, the blond (ex?)-kunoichi got up and knocked her out. There. Now she would _stay_ the only person knowing how to release the wards. At least until the woman recovered, but it didn't matter too much, considering she'd stay asleep until Ino chose to allow her to wake up..

The few students still awake stared at Ino in amazement.

"What, never seen a girl fight before?" she asked them all. After a series of rapid handseals, Ino finished the genjustu.

"Nehan Shōja no Jutsu ('Temple of Nirvana Technique')!" she said. Students began to look around in surprise as they watched feathers fall from the sky. The original technique developed by Yakushi Kabuto required more time to send a whole village to sleep, but considering the smaller size of the infirmary, the apparent lack of resistance to genjutsu, and a few of Ino's own personal modifications to the technique, it only took moments for her to put every single one of the students to sleep.

Of course, considering the fact that this would only last maybe about twenty minutes, Ino didn't have the time to enjoy the power of her techniques.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu ('Spiritualism/Summoning Technique')!" she cried, biting her thumb, creating a series of tiny runes. There was a brief cloud of smoke, and two crows appeared before her on the ground.

"Itsuki, Ikki," she said to the twin crows. "Count up hostages. I have twenty-two captives here. Ikki, check on Shikamaru. See if he has anything to bargain with as well. Itsuki, take that woman's stick and fly to Kiba in the forest as proof that we have hostages. Go!"

With a short 'caw', the two crows left. They were the only two animal summons that Ino was ever able to summon, with her smaller amount of chakra and the fact that they were the only crow summons in the contract. But as small as they were, they served their purpose. Being 'twin summons', they were able to automatically relay information between one another, making them the ideal two summons for a Yamanaka trained in information collecting, among other things.

Applying a precise amount chakra to the eye with precision that could almost rival to Sakura's, she increased the power of the rods in her retina. She lost some of the colors in her eye but increased her nightvision, seeing everything outside with extreme clarity.

Outside, she could see Kiba had already reverted back to his original form. Idiot! He always used so much more chakra than he really needed. This is why she told him not to play with his moves before missions!

Ugh... There was a giant man, and then a giant who was larger than the giant man. Kiba had taken down some guy with long hair down. She winced.

With the ointments that Kiba always applied to his claw-like nails, she knew there was going to be quite some scarring. Unless, of course, Sakura was here with an ointment. And the chances of meeting this guy again in this lifetime was slim to none, considering the distance between wherever Hogwarts was and Japan.

Itsuki had arrived on the scene. There was some talking, Kiba threatened the unconscious guy, the wizards backed off and left. Ino looked at the clock on the wall.

Luckily, this had only taken about fifteen minutes before Itsuki had flown back to the infirmary, confirming Kiba and Naruto's safe escape. Those two and Akamaru were already making their way back to the Room of Requirement.

Itsuki also confirmed to her that Shikamaru and Ikki had managed to trap several people but he had left as soon as Kiba and Naruto were released. The hostages were chasing after him because it was, to put it simply, too troublesome to fight back and kill them.

Saying the password to release the locking wards, she left the infirmary. There was about five minutes perhaps until those in the infirmary woke up. She reactivated the wards once again, this time from the outside. Pulling out a hair pin, she stuck it between the door and the wall. Even when they managed to pull down the magical wards, it would probably take them a while to open the door from the inside.

Smiling to herself, she ran with Itsuki hovering over her shoulder. The radios were still dead, but it was still easy for Shikamaru and Ino to talk through their crows.

Running in spirals in the stairwell, Ino finally stopped, on the top floor.

"Tell Shikamaru that I'm ready to pull him up," she said to Irsuki, who nodded. She glanced down the stairwell and braced her leg against the handrails. Down below, she spotted Shikamaru jumping out in the middle of the spiraling staircases and—

"Shin-dashin no Jutsu, ('New Approaching Technique')!"

Feeling a strong tug, she dragged Shikamaru straight up. Shikamaru jumped over the railings, keeping Ino from falling down herself.

"That was close..." she said meekly.

"You don't have a lot of chakra, do you?" Shikamaru said to her knowingly.

"It's as bad as Kiba," she mumbled as he picked her up and headed towards the end of the stairwell and out into the hall of the seventh floor.

"Well, you could always say it's 'as good as Kiba'. He has a decent amount of chakra too," he said to her as he ran towards the Room of Requirement. Almost right in front of the door, Shikamaru stumbled and slipped.

"Ow!" Ino yelped. She smacked him. "Shikamaru! Why'd you fall?" she shrieked, looking at the shattered pieces of her bracelet on the floor.

"Well I didn't do it on purpose," he said, picking himself up shakily. He helped Ino up and they both stumbled into the room. "I'll make you another bracelet, but let's go."

"You suck," she said, despairing over Shikamaru's gift for her. "You're _definitely_ giving me something new..."

Shikamaru slammed the door shut quickly, though it felt almost as if he hit something in the doorway. Pausing, he realized it was probably because his sleeve was caught between the door and the wall. He rolled his eyes and pulled himself free of the door and helped Ino through the Vanishing Cabinet.

After a moment of almost overwhelming dizziness that came with this strange form of instantaneous travel, Shikamaru's eyes widened, seeing the danger that was heading straight for him, and Ino screamed.

* * *

(1) Harii Pottā: That was how it was translated into Japanese in the book.

* * *

**My Thinking Corner**

A cliffie. ...Yaaay.

I'm supposed to go to the Winter Ball at seven o'clock today. It's 5:50 right now and I'm dressed in... I'd say nothing, but I'm sure a lot of you would get the wrong idea. Just, like, a sweater, a few several T-shirts (all of a sudden, it's FREEZING down here!!) and a pair of sweatpants. Needless to say, I don't think I'm going. There's bad food, the music is too loud, and I've got SATs tomorrow. ...I think I should be studying right now, but I don't know... lol. Wish me luck!


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: An Awkward Encounter

Tam is not a main character, therefore not a Man-Sue. ...Though he does play a bit of a role.

* * *

With Ino in his arms, shrieking in his ear, they both ducked out of the way of a blond reckless fool and his blue swirling Rasengan, protesting loudly. 

"Naruto!" Ino yelped, pushing Shikamaru off from on top of her to yell at the other blond. "That was close! Too close! Are you trying to _kill_ us?"

Naruto grinned, scratching his head. "Well, only the real... Seven could dodge something like _that_!" he said laughing. And then Ino leaped up to her feet and jumped on him. Needless to say, he wasn't laughing any more.

"_Not if we're INJURED_!" Ino cried in a shrill voice, twisting bits of Naruto's hair at the roots, much to his distress.

"Aaah! Ow! Help me, someone!" he cried until Ino was dragged off of him.

"So are you alright?" Sakura asked her friend with a concerned look on her face.

"I'll have you know I am not," she scoffed, lifting her wrist.

"...What?" Naruto said, seeing nothing wrong.

"My bracelet! We fell and my bracelet _broke_!" she moaned.

"That's _very _horrible," Sai said with his usual false smile. It had taken a while, but after several months, Ino—like everyone else—finally understood the real meaning behind Sai's words.

"Oh shut up," she said. "I'm serious."

"Well, while you two moan over a broken present," Kiba said, "I suppose _I'll_ just recover from a concussion and Naruto from his broken leg."

"His legs aren't broken," Ino said, glancing at his torn pants.

"Well not anymore," Naruto said, wincing at the sight of his clothing. "I suppose we'll have to thank the Kyuubi that my legs are just bruised now... Oh, how're my seals?" Naruto asked Sakura as she healed various cuts on his face.

"They're _fine_," she said idly. "I told you before, they won't wear off until one of us activates it, and then only _our _part would be weakened, which is easily fixable."

"How did the mission go?" Neji said to them from the other side of Ino and Sakura's room.

"An hour wasted," Shikamaru said. "We failed."

There was a pregnant moment of silence as everyone took this in.

"I guess that means we stick with our day job," Naruto said with his usual false cheer.

"We'd be stuck at the teahouse even if the mission _succeeded_," Shikamaru said. "What time is it?"

"It's only been an hour since you've left," Sakura answered, pointing at a shabby clock on the wall that read nine forty-five in the morning. Shikamaru groaned. Their shifts started in an hour and they were exhausted.

"I've still got some energy left so I could take your shifts," Naruto said.

"Thanks," Ino said gratefully, looking around at the others. She laid back down on the bed she shared with Sakura, only to immediately sit back up. "Oh man..." she muttered under her breath.

"What is it?" Sakura asked her.

"Doesn't matter whether Naruto takes over my shift, I still have work to do," she said, walking over to the kitchen table and pulling out papers and pens.

"It can wait," Shikamaru said. "It's not as if we have any actual schedule and deadline to work with, so mission reports don't really matter too much.

"Not really," Ino said, starting the blank pages, unsure of where to start the mission log entry. "There's actually quite a lot for me to do..."

"More information?"

"Information regarding our client," she said darkly, remembering the false information that Akui had given them. "I'll be done in an hour."

"Fine," Shikamaru said, pulling up a chair to sit next to her. "I'll help. But after this, we can all relax. It's over now."

* * *

At nine-fifty in the morning, most of the teachers of Hogwarts were yawning in staffroom, weary but concerned. Hogwarts had never been infiltrated before, and certainly not by young children, according to Tonks and Hagrid's statement of what had happened in the forest. 

It was hard to believe that a handful of people had managed to cause such a huge amount of damage to the forest, to Bill who was most definitely not an ordinary wizard to be trifled with, and to Grawp (a _giant_ for Merlin's sake!). Not to mention holding a mediwitch, handfuls of children, and the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor himself.

"I'm worried for the students' safety," Minerva said to Albus, with a rather concerned expression on her face. "These intruders have managed to enter and exit Hogwarts safe'y and we still don't know how they did it."

"Actually," Albus said to them, "several students, though they had not seen the actual event, managed to formulate a rather clever guess how our late night visitors had arrived in Hogwarts."

"How?" Professor McGonagall asked him with wide eyes.

"By an ingenious use of the Vanishing Cabinet, which has recently been restored after it's unfortunate fall in 1992 when Peeves dropped it near Argus's office," Dumbledore said calmly. "For those who don't know, the Cabinet transfers objects which go into one cabinet to a second paired and identical cabinet where our little friends emerged. Montague, I believe, had been trapped inside of it for a week last year. Apparently, someone went to great pains to restore the Vanishing Cabinet so that the intruders were able to easily override the security of Hogwarts."

"If we know all of this, then why haven't we sent people inside the cabinet to the other side?" Horace Slughorn demanded.

"Because if we entered, our enemy would be waiting to ambush and perhaps even kill us before we may even react," Dumbledore said gravely. "Also, the cabinet on the other side of the connection has already been destroyed. Perhaps the very moment the last of their friends had safely arrived on the other side."

"How do you know?" Severus asked him.

"Because one student already tried going inside the cabinet after him," the headmaster said wearily. "He was stuck inside until we were able to find him and remove him from inside the cabinet. It is _definitely_ broken."

"So tha's all?" Hagrid said incredulously. "Studen's attacked, Bill down, and even _Snape captured—_"

"Only for a moment," Severus muttered darkly between gritted teeth, still nursing his ego.

"—and these people are still gettin' away scotch-free fer attackin' yah?"

"Of course not," Dumbledore said, surprising everyone. "Luckily for us, when the woman seen leaving the infirmary had left, she decided to leave a hair pin in the doorway to trap the patients inside. This hairpin alone," he said, holding up a purple and green jeweled pin, probably bought in a child's store, "is a major clue to their current location."

"How?" Professor McGonagall said.

"Why, by use of a simple location charm, of course," the headmaster said.

This comment was met with a brief moment of complete silence. The staff was used to Dumbledore's casual overstatements, but it _still_ wasn't the easiest thing to deal with, feeling left so far behind by an old man, whether he was Dumbledore or not.

"...Only you would call a location charm, of all things, simple," Severus mumbled.

"Why thank you," Dumbledore said, taking that as a compliment. He conjured a map of the world with his wand onto the table. Holding the pin in one hand and the wand in the other, Dumbledore closed his eyes to concentrate and pointed the wand at the map.

"_Obfendierus," _he said. (Literally 'find owner')

The pin shot down to the map and stabbed the map with the strength of the spell and the spell caster. It was embedded deeply in Japan. Dumbledore picked up the pin, zoomed in on Japan, and cast the spell a second time. It flew to the Aichi Prefecture.

He did this a third time and it landed in Toyohashi, Japan.

"I believe," Dumbledore said, "that we have found out culprits."

"Shall we go right now?" Minerva asked him.

Albus shook his head. "Leaving at this moment would alarm students, after hearing the rather loud declaration of an intruder in Hogwarts. Tomorrow, Severus, you shall give the house elves an Obliviation Draught for the students so that they will not recall the events that have transpired tonight."

"And you will go tomorrow?"

"Actually, the day after tomorrow," Dumbledore said. "On Sunday. At twelve-thirty."

"Why that time in particular?" Minerva asked. "And how will you keep suspicion of your disappearance a secret from the students? You know how quickly rumor spreads around with them."

"Ah, that is where Horace comes in," he said.

"Me?" the chubby, walrus-like man said in surprise. He wasn't a part of Dumbledore's secret organization and he didn't feel like endangering himself unnecessarily. He was, after all, a Slytherin at heart, and Dumbledore of all people ought to know _that_.

"Yes, you," Albus said to him, nodding. "You came to me earlier this night—or should I say 'last night'?—with a letter from Gwenog Jones, am I right?"

Horace's eyes widened and he grinned. "I sure do," he said, understanding Dumbledore's plans. "A letter and three tickets to the Quidditch World Cup Preliminaries."

"Yes... on Sunday, Slughorn, myself, and possibly Alastor Moody—if I can manage it—will attend the preliminary match between the Holyhead Harpies... and the _Toyohashi Tengu_."

* * *

Draco Malfoy sat alone in the Slytherin common room, hunched over sitting in his bed. He had inscribed the date of the infiltration in the galleon and had been waiting for any signs of chaos or death when he heard one of the things he feared the most. 

'An intruder in Hogwarts in the Room of Requirement!' he heard Potter shout from the seventh floor.

Upon hearing this, Draco had immediately left his hideout in the bathroom and had gone straight to his bed, though not to sleep. He kept the curtains of his four-poster bed drawn tightly shut, straining his ears for any sound at all. Once or twice, he may have heard a girl screaming. It almost sounded like Granger, but he wouldn't count on it. Why would a _Gryffindor_ be wandering around in the dungeons?

Nevertheless, he waited for any sign of... of _anything_. The suspense he felt weighing down in his chest was almost unbearable. Crabbe and Goyle looked curiously through the curtains. They had been worried about their 'boss' ever since it seemed that Malfoy had started cracking under the pressure. As much as he appreciated the fact that they were actually worried for his well-being, friends or no, he was not in the mood to entertain fools.

He just needed to be alone.

For a moment, Malfoy considered killing Dumbledore himself. Surely they must have weakened the old man at least a bit? But he banished the thought as quickly as it had come to him. Going one-on-one with the man whom the Dark Lord was most wary of? Definitely not!

Then again, if things went well in that terribly one-sided battle, he might die a quick death at Dumbledore's hands. Better death at Dumbledore's wand than the Dark Lord's.

Of course, being a Slytherin to the end, he at least wanted to cling to live, no matter how pathetic it seemed. Dumbledore may give him a more merciful end to his life, but if he ever faced the Dark Lord... well, he'd probably have a few days before the Dark Lord went demanding his head on a plate.

On more than on occasion, he had considered going to the 'Light' side, but... his mother and his father were still in the Dark Lord's clutches. Of course, Lucius Malfoy was still in Azkaban, but rumors confirmed He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's far reach, with the huge number of 'disappearances' and deaths that had occurred as of late.

Susan Bone's mother had been blown to bits. According to rumor among Death Eaters, it was a gruesome death, with bits and pieces all over the place. Dozens of Muggles had been killed when someone had destroyed a bridge with some sort of 'bomb'. The Durmstrang headmaster had been killed and his body left in a shack, though his head was completely missing. Hannah Abbott's mother—dead. Mr. Ollivander—missing. More than likely to be dead. Fortescue, the ice cream vendor of Diagon Alley, who was rumored to have been a powerful wizard (being the possible descendant of one of Hogwarts many previous headmasters)—also almost definitely dead. Octavius Pepper—dead. Killed in the early spring.

The mounting list of these bloody deaths mystified even the Death Eaters. In fact, even the Dark Lord's Inner Circle was unaware of the identity of You-Know-Who's newest henchman.

Rumor had it that the Dark Lord had a powerful organization under his own command, almost similar to the covert group that Draco had turned to for Dumbledore's assassination. Which didn't seem to be going so well so far by the sounds of it.

There were no sounds of a struggle, no signs of mourning over an old man's death.

It had been an hour later, after everything was over, that Draco deducted that the assassins had escaped danger but hadn't even harmed the old man. Draco Malfoy knew he was in deeper trouble than he had ever been in before.

Leaning his head back in despair over his mother and father, Draco stared at the ceiling for the longest time. He had failed to perform the task the Dark Lord had assigned to him, and now the illustrious name of the Malfoy lineage was coming to an end.

Needless to say, he was not looking forward towards his arrival home.

Draco wondered vaguely for just a brief moment if the assassins hired by the Dark Lord would be kind enough to grant him a quick death.

* * *

**June 20, 1997  
Toyohashi, Japan**

Li Tam smiled at the blond man as he stuttered an excuse as to why he was late. He waved his hand dismissively.

"That's alright," he said, interrupting Naruto before this could get too long. "Things happen," he said, shrugging. "Besides, I know you all well enough to trust you and your friends not to arrive on time."

"Thank you, Ri-san," he said with a grin. Tam bit back a comment. It was not Ri, it was _Li_.

But, he knew them—'them' being Naruto, Ino, Sakura, Shikamaru, Kiba, and Sai—well enough to know that they probably couldn't say his name correctly out of pure habit. Being the person who took the responsibility of teaching them English, he knew how they disliked the pronunciation of certain letters. Like 'L' for instance.

So it was out of pure habit that they always pronounced his name incorrectly.

Years ago, he had left Britain out of envy of his younger sister _and_ cousin, who were invited to attend some illustrious boarding school that selected only those who showed certain abilities. Out of his entire family, he was the only one to have shown such little signs of magic. Sure, he was definitely no Squib, but at the age of twenty-three, he could barely light a candle. It was actually rather pathetic, really.

Cho and Su had managed to become talented in the Defense Against the Dark Arts. He had even heard that Cho was able to create a Patronus, a goal that many qualified _adult_ wizards had failed to achieve.

Was Tam envious? Of course he was.

His immediate family lived closer to their father's side of the family. They were Chinese wizards and damn proud of it. There weren't many wizards who spoke with more than just a British accent. The Changs were actually an ancient line of wizards, not quite pureblood, but ancient nevertheless. Their mother's side, however, was of nonmagical Japanese descent.

And so it was his mother's side that Tam had retreated to so he could escape from the taunting world of magic.

After staying several weeks at his cousin's home, Tam was tired of becoming a burden and decided to open his own tea shop. Almost immediately, he managed to find a group of children, barely even of age, in need of work.

They showed no signs of magic, but didn't react to strangely when they spotted some certain wizard attributed things, like a few products of the recent 'Weasley Wizard Wheezes'.

They never mentioned magic at all, but Tam understood why. Like him, they were also practically or really were Squibs. It wasn't hard to spot signs of what Tam called 'dead magic' in them. There was one with eyes almost exactly like Mr. Ollivander's, the wand maker. He must have been a relative who also showed no sign of magic.

They never asked why he didn't ask about their past. He never brought it up.

Instead, having a bit more of an education dealing with Muggles, he taught them their 'ways'. They were not to reveal anything 'out of ordinary' to their customers, they couldn't talk about their village so idly in public, and they most certainly could not tell anyone that they never went to a Muggle school even once in their lifetime.

It was as originally as a gift from one not-quite-a-wizard to another that he gave them all jobs, paid them _well_, and even taught them English and anything else he had at hand to spare.

Of course, it was only recently when he mentioned a Chinese cousin playing on a Japanese Quidditch team that, as he had received no response, that he learned that these children were _not_ squibs, were _not_ from the magical world, and did _not_ know what the hell Quidditch was.

It had originally come as a surprise to Tam, but after that, he never mentioned magic again. And, despite his curiosity, he never asked why they knew so little about the world, why that despite their strange habits they were nonmagical, or or why they didn't have any other familial relations.

He knew enough about them to understand that some things were not meant to be questioned. For instance, the eight of them, plus a dog, lived in only two separate apartment complex: one for the girls, and one for the boys. It was very decent of the men, considering how there were more of them than the women. After all, they could always split up the rooms evenly, without dividing between the sexes.

He knew that they were currently around their late teens, having met them two years ago when they were generally about fifteen.

He knew that they were always broke, looking for ways to get money to support themselves, despite the fact that they were always saving money, particularly on their apartment which was somewhere in the shadier side of town.

He knew that one of the eight young adults was now missing, and that the other, whom he knew vaguely only because the man never worked at the teahouse, was still rather upset about it.

He knew that these people were also sometimes involved with a bit of shady business.

He knew that one of them was a wicked gambler.

And he knew that the one named 'Yamada Taro' was definitely not really a 'Yamada Taro', or else his parents were unjustly cruel to him when they were in the process of naming him (1).

_Anyway_, recollections aside, it was a rather busy day for Tam. The very day that Naruto and his friends had appeared late—and some of them none at all—as they often did, he was also receiving a huge amount of visitors streaming in from all over Japan and even England.

Why was that?

Because tonight, the Quidditch preliminaries of the local Toyohashi Tengu and the Holyhead Harpies was going to take place.

Tam was torn between letting himself fall even further behind with orders from customers and possibly exposing magic to his... friends? Calling them subordinates when they were only a few years younger than him seemed rather demeaning. 'Friends' would suffice. Either way, there was the possibility of allowing the four to work and at least catch up slightly on their customer's orders, or he could let them have the day off and fall even further behind.

"I have a _huge_ amount of people here today," Tam said to them urgently. "They're, um, coming for a convention."

"A convention?" Naruto said excitedly.

"It's not for anything real big. In fact, it's a convention for... for magicians. Street magicians. They're doing all sorts of tricks and things like that," Tam said, lying on the spot. "Anyway, um, let's see how we'll deal with this..." Tam looked at the group.

"Alright, Ino, Sakura, and Kiba will be waiting on people and delivering orders. Sai, Shikamaru, and Naruto will be in the back cooking and making drinks. I'll deal with handling the money."

"Alright," Shikamaru said, nodding, though he was somewhat surprised that Tam was taking the job involving numbers for him. Everyone working at Tam's Teahouse knew that Tam was pathetic with money and numbers. Nevertheless, he didn't question the boss.

Tam didn't really want his waiters wondering why his customers were paying in gold and silver coins..

"Oh, and where's your friend?" Tam asked, looking around for the seventh member and wondering if he had left as well.

"Neji? Ah, he's out there somewhere," Naruto said, shrugging.

"He's watching my dog," Kiba said.

"Ah, okay," Tam said. "Well, thank you all. I'll, um... well, you'll be paid for overtime today, I guess."

"You don't have t—" Naruto was about to say when Kiba covered his mouth.

"Don't listen to Naruto, he's delusional," he said. "Of course we'll take the money."

Tam laughed. "Right, right," he said to them. "Thanks again! And if you see anything weird, just remember, these are guys who _specialize_ in making magic tricks. So don't pay anything odd any attention, alright?"

"Right," they all said and immediately got to work.

* * *

It had been four hours of work since they had arrived that morning at nine, and the orders were just now lessening. 

"Tam!" one person said. "You here!"

Tam turned around to see a young girl, probably around twelve or thirteen, standing behind him.

"Surae!" Tam said, grinning widely at his younger sister. He picked her up and she suddenly struggled to get away.

"Tam-fool, let me down," she squealed, turning red. "I'm not kid anymore!"

"You're my kid sister," he said with a grin. "Your grammar is horrible."

His younger sister rolled her eyes as he put her firmly back on the ground.

Tam turned to Naruto and his friends. "This is my younger sister Su. She's spoiled and rotten and goes to a fancy school in the Scotland," he said. "Not only is her Japanese bad, but her Chinese has a British accent as well," he joked.

"Does not!" she said, crossing her arms stubbornly.

Tam laughed. "So," he said, looking a bit more serious now. "How's Cho?"

"Cousin Cho? Ah..." Surae frowned, and then started speaking in rapid Chinese. Then, she pulled out a picture and showed it to Tam, who grinned in response.

"What's that?" Naruto asked, looking at the picture.

"It's my cousin, Cho," Tam said. "A picture of her in the hospital. She's been there for about a year, but she's getting better, I think. She _looks_ happy."

Naruto's eyes widened. Tam realized that the picture was moving slightly, waving to Naruto, and he immediately pocketed it.

"Ah, man, more orders," he said, looking around. "Ah, we've got more work to do."

Naruto nodded, but he turned to his friends before they all returned to work. It was difficult for Tam to hear, since Naruto was speaking in an undertone with all the noise coming from the wizards, but he could hear bits and phrases of it.

"...cousin looks a bit like 'You-Know-Who'..." he heard Naruto mumble.

Now Tam was really glad that they weren't wizards. That would have been a bit of an insult if they were, considering the fact that rumor said that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named looked more like something that had escaped a preserving jar for potions.

And, now that he thought about it, Cho _did_ resemble a friend of theirs. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen her in a while.

Maybe it was his cousin's uncanny resemblance to their friend, or maybe it was the moving picture, but something had definitely warranted this strange reaction from the usual happy-go-lucky Naruto.

* * *

Tam's Teahouse was a hotspot for wizards traveling in the Muggle world. Because of Japan's huge population, it was often difficult for wizards to find empty areas to gather, therefore stores and buildings like these—owned by the magic-less-yet-magic-aware—were a blessing for the wizarding folk, where they didn't have to be so careful around Muggles. 

Dumbledore glanced around the teahouse and spotted several Hogwarts students, even though the school term had not yet ended. But that wasn't completely important at the moment. It was a Sunday, so it wasn't as if that student had classes. But this... pursuing his young attackers was much more important.

Horace was already attending the Quidditch preliminaries, and so only Dumbledore and Alastor were left to look for the Hogwarts intruders.

...After a spot of tea with an old friend, of course. Dumbledore and Moody had Flooed to Tam's Teahouse from Hogwarts and, after Slughorn left to the Quidditch game, they observed their surroundings, looking for free tables, which were growing in abundance as the wizards began leaving for the Quidditch game.

"Ah, Mr. Dumbledore!" a heavily accented voice said. Dumbledore and Alastor turned around to find an Asian man standing behind him.

"Ah, Mr. Li," the headmaster said. "We were just in town—"

"Oh, don't give me that," the young man said. "Shouldn't you be at the Quidditch game?"

"Ah, our friend had gone," Dumbledore said, allowing the man to lead them to a seat in the corner. "But we decided to sightsee the Muggle neighborhood."

"I'm afraid there's not much here to see in Toyohashi," he replied. "Unless, of course, you spend the night here. The lights that appear at night are like nothing in the wizarding world. The streetlights alone are enough to keep me here forever."

"You speak too highly of Japan," Moody grumbled. "I'd say it's much too inconvenient, with flashing lights everywhere and blinding you. Plus, no magic."

"Not a problem for me," he said, shrugging. "So, you must be Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody."

"It's not hard to guess," the man growled, his magical eye looking in the direction of the kitchen. "You must be Li Tam."

"How did you know?" the Asian man said in surprise.

"Well, Albus called you Mr. _Li_, you seem to own this place, and it's called '_Tam's_ Teahouse', and those kids in the back definitely don't look like they own the place," Alastor said.

"Oh yeah," Tam said, looking embarrassed. "It's not often I meet a wizard with common sense," he laughed. "But, ah, I suppose that eye allows you to see through solid walls, am I right?"

"You are," Alastor said.

"What's your range?" Tam asked with sudden interest. "Twenty, thirty meters?"

"About," he replied suspiciously. "Why do you want to know?"

"I was just wondering... There's an all-girl's school just across the street and the locker room—"

There was a crash as a stack of plates fell to the floor. Everyone in the room looked up to find a blond boy. He looked up at Tam sheepishly. He met Dumbledore's eyes and both stared at each other for a full minute. All of a sudden, a plate was flying towards Dumbledore, and before they even had time to react, it shattered. Shards of the plate continued to fly in their direction, as well as a wickedly sharp black knife.

With barely any time to cast a spell, the three (or rather, two and a half) wizards jumped out of the way. When they looked up, they found the blond had left, as well as the rest of Tam's hired help.

"Well," Dumbledore said thoughtfully. "I did _not_ expect to see _them_ here..."

* * *

**_A Flashback Period  
September 6, 1995  
Toyohashi Japan_**

"Okay," Shikamaru said in a low tone of voice as he and the other seven plus Akamaru huddled at the back in an old building. "Here's what we know so far... one: we are in a different world—"

"Oh really?" Sai asked with mock surprise. "I hadn't known..."

Shikamaru glared at him but chose not to comment. This guy really annoyed him. "...Second, their technology is similar to ours, only a bit more advanced—"

"A _bit_?" Kiba yelped. "A bit!" He moved his hands away from his nose and pointed outside of the dusty window to the speeding vehicles outside. "Look at that! They ride in huge mechanical _monsters_ that run almost as quickly as we do, and at a _constant rate_! That's not a bit!"

"Well, if you think about it, it's similar to our motor boats," Shikamaru said. "It's just an engine and wheels."

"They stink more than our boats do..." Kiba muttered sulkily, continuing to cover his nose.

"Why don't you just stop sending chakra to your nose?" Naruto asked.

"Inuzuka bloodline limit."

"_You_ have a _bloodline _limit?" Naruto said, looking totally confused. Everyone else stared at Kiba as well.

He looked down at his feet, grumbling. "It's nothing that big, actually..." he mumbled. "We just naturally send chakra to our nose. And then it takes a bit of conditioning to turn it off."

"...That's all?"

Kiba glared at him. "Yes, that's all. I'd stop the chakra from going to my nose, but it'll just go back the moment I stop consciously thinking about it. It'll take a while for me to get used to stopping the chakra before it gets to my nose anyway. I'll manage it soon."

"Look, quit going off topic here!" Shikamaru said impatiently. "Look, we're stuck in another world, we've got outdated currency, we've got outdated _weapons_, we've got no knowledge of our environment, and Naruto's seal is acting fucked up! _Anyone else here worried about the consequences or is it just me_?"

'Wow," Ino said. "...Shikamaru's actually worried."

"Ino! You all! This is a serious matter! I _am_ worried," he said, feeling a headache coming on. This was one of those times where he couldn't really afford to be easygoing and laid back. "Nobody seems to be thinking about the effects of getting dumped into a new environment. We can't get back. We're stuck without money and food. We can't keep stealing from people forever."

"Why not?"

"Because people will find out about us sooner or later," he said, as if it were obvious. "They'll up the security, and probably throw us off a bit, since it's so different from our own, and then we're caught. And, technically, we are illegal immigrants wherever we go. And somewhere out there may be an Orochimaru in a high-status place. There's always the possibility that they'll want us for experiments, though that may be getting over dramatic. I can honestly say that we are biologically different from people here. Or different on some sort of level. And then, since we've spent so little time in this world, the diseases here may really screw us up, since we might not be immune to _anything_ here, though that, of course, may also be unlikely. Though still possible. More so than the human experimentation."

"There's also the factor of our survival once we return," Ino mused.

"What do you mean by that?" Kiba asked.

"Okay, most of _us_ aren't in any danger," she said, "but we all know about Neji's cursed seal, right? What if, after a certain period of time, Neji is assumed dead by the main family?"

"My cursed seal is activated..." Neji said absently, putting a hand to his own forehead.

"I didn't think of that," Tenten said, she and Neji looking at each other.

"The fact that we may be in a different dimension may actually help us in this case," Shikamaru said. "It's been several days in this world. Perhaps only seconds have passed in Konoha. Or maybe the entire Hyuuga clan was wiped out by remaining members of Akatsuki. Hopefully not. But it's extremely possible that they may have defeated Kakashi, despite Akiko's help. Maybe Hinata and Hanabi managed to convince Hiashi and the other members of the main family to cease use of the cursed seal. Maybe there is a delayed reaction between this world and the next. Maybe, there is a barrier between the worlds that completely blocks the effects of the cursed seal."

"Eh?" Naruto wasn't the only one giving Shikamaru blank stares.

"As in, they may have activated the seal, and the moment that Neji returns to the world, it will be activated and will kill him," he explained. "Maybe Neji won't be able to return without dying."

That proclamation was met with silence.

"Of course, due to the fact that the cursed seal must be activated for a certain period of time and that Neji may have missed it, it's not completely likely," he added as an after thought. "There may also be certain side affects from this world. What if activating the cursed seal from the other side of the dimension may not kill him, but still cause Neji to lose his Byakugan? We don't know anything about how interdimensional travel or whatever may affect someone."

"That's enough about me," Neji said, looking uncomfortable.

"Right," the genius said. "I suppose that _is_ enough. Though this world itself may have an effect on all of us..."

Shikamaru took a deep breath and leaned back slightly, as if trying to think of more things to stress out about. "Also, Naruto's chakra is insane. And, just to make it all clear, who doesn't know that Naruto is keeping the Kyuubi at bay inside of him?"

Kiba, Neji, and Tenten raised their hands slightly.

"Well now you know," Shikamaru said. "Naruto's keeping the Kyuubi at bay inside of him."

"...That sounds a lot better than just saying I'm the Kyuubi," Naruto joked.

"Wait, so Hiashi-sama was _serious_?" Neji said incredulously.

"Hey, it's illegal to speak about the Kyuubi to the next generation," Naruto said.

Shikamaru shrugged. "Not too many people listen to that anyway. My dad, Ino's dad, and Chouji's dad discuss it all the time. Like politics. Not with us, but we sometimes catch bits of their conversation."

"According to what our parents say and a bit of our own moral opinion," Ino said, glancing at Shikamaru, "that since you're a friend and you're pretty much the only thing standing between us and the ninetails, we won't let anything happen to you!"

"What are _we_, chopped liver?" Kiba muttered.

"Dog liver," Ino corrected. The Inuzuka shuddered. Bleugh.

"Wait, I don't get it," Naruto said. "Why am I in so much danger here too? We're in a new world. Fresh new start. I understand that I might be in danger again when we get back home, but why here? No one's after me here."

"Actually," Shikamaru said, "there are several points I'd like to make while I get into this topic. How many people remember the day we came here clearly?"

They all raised their hands, feeling as if they were in academy school again.

"Good, you all do. Now, what about right before then? When, according to Naruto, Kakashi pretty much sacrificed us for the common good?"

Hands went down.

"Even I don't really remember what happened clearly," Naruto mumbled, having been one of the few completely conscious while the others were unable to move and barely able to think.

"I've been discussing things with Ino. According to both of our memories, which she has looked through and cross-referenced, we weren't the first to go. Kakashi used his Sharingan first on the person with the mask who had trapped us in that invisible box technique. That masked person is more than likely to have been sent to this world. Upon seeing that we were still trapped inside the cage thing, he did the only thing he could to and turned his Sharingan on us."

"Why couldn't he just let us pass out and figure out how to get us out without... without sending us into some other dimension?" Naruto asked.

"Because our chakra was literally being detached from us. Not absorbed, like what the Yoroi clansmen are able to do. Literally ripped out, reserve and all, thus giving this masked enemy our entire reserve. Permanently. Which also brings us to our next issue. The Kyuubi."

"What about it?" Naruto said, surprised with this sudden change in subject.

"Your chakra, like when we were twelve, is once again uncontrollable. You had shown us a decent amount of chakra control before all of this, but now you can barely channel your chakra properly. Now..." Shikamaru suddenly reached forward and lifted the front of Naruto's stolen T-shirt. "Look."

"What happened?" Sakura asked, staring at Naruto's belly.

"Hey, what's going on down there?" he asked, pushing Shikamaru's hand out of his way and his shirt down slightly to see what was wrong himself. "What's wrong with my stomach?"

"The seal on your stomach," Shikamaru said. "We all know that sealing techniques do _not_ look like that."

"Like what?" Naruto said, not noticing any difference.

"You would think," Shikamaru said dryly, "that after about fifteen years with that thing on your belly you would notice it if the supposedly permanent ink was receding from your skin. Your seal is starting to fade."

"Do I want to know how you knew?" Naruto asked hesitantly, not sure if he wanted to be aware whether Shikamaru was some sort of demented peeping Tom or not.

"I wasn't spying on you, if that's what you're implying," Shikamaru said, rolling his eyes. "In fact, the first detail that tipped me off was the fact that, even though I couldn't see your seal receding, I could see that every time you used your chakra since the day we arrived in this world, your whisker-like marks get thicker and bolder.

"Back at home, they seemed to return to normal after you finished using your chakra, but I noticed recently that... in the eleven or twelve days we've been here, the number of times you resorted to using huge amounts of chakra has totaled up to be about...sixteen times. And already, I've noticed that the originally hairline thin marks on your cheek are already two whole millimeters in width. They're also slightly longer and a bit darker as well."

"Wait..." Naruto said, as he and everyone else understood what all of this was amounting to and what Shikamaru was predicting.

"The masked man who trapped us in that cage twelve days ago used something in an attempt to steal every drop of our chakra. In the process, I believe he may have been attempting to take not just the Kyuubi's chakra, which, alone is a huge deal, but even the Kyuubi itself. Pulling on something sealed would be like tying a rope to a rock and attempting to drag that rock out of a too small hole in the wall. If you try long enough, you may succeed in tugging the rock free, but you damage the wall in the process.

"In other words, since we spent a few minutes under strenuous circumstances, with our chakra and our very essence almost being dragged out of us, our masked friend may have succeeded in pulling out a part of the Kyubi's chakra. However, due to the fact that the majority of the Kyubi remains inside you, I'm sure that by now, it has _completely_ returned to your body and Tobi no longer has an extra amount of chakra at his beck and call."

"And _how_ do you know this?" Sakura asked.

"It's a not-so-simple deduction," Shikamaru said. "We all had our chakra dragged from our bodies, but we managed to survive. The moment we escaped from that prison, we were nearly powerless, with the exception of Naruto, who had, at least, a few remnants of his chakra reserves, thanks to his incredible stamina. But we survived and slowly began to regain our powers. We may still not be at full power, but I say we'll get back there eventually. In the meantime, everything that Akatsuki member had taken from us was leaving him. So long as the user is alive, the chakra still has its 'anchor' inside of him or her. Unless the user dies, it will always return to the original.

"We all still had a small amount of our chakra, and we were still alive. Therefore, we were able to pull our chakra back to our bodies. Tobi may have enjoyed a bit of his time toying with remnants of our clan abilities, bloodlines, and chakra, but as we take it back, he has to give it up. Do you all get it?"

Sakura nodded.

"...Barely," Kiba mumbled. Akamaru whined.

"Good, because we've gone off topic and I don't feel like explaining that again," Shikamaru said, rubbing his head, feeling almost as if he had a migraine. One the would probably last several years. A migraine the size of Konoha. Or 'Japan'.

"The biggest problem is _very_ possible," Shikamaru said. "And perhaps the most dangerous to us all. Naruto's seal is weakened. Dramatically. Which means that the huge amount of chakra that almost literally floods into Naruto's body—being sent directly from the Kyuubi—may very well pollute his mind and perhaps even take over his body. That would cause a huge strain on Naruto's body, _possibly _shortening his lifespan, and endanger us all. I don't suppose anyone here has the ability to withstand the direct powers of the Kyuubi...?"

He glanced around at the silent room. It was a rhetorical question, of course. He hadn't expected an answer anyway. .

"On the other hand, with our combined efforts, there's still a chance that we can, at least, hold it back. Our skills are nothing in comparison to the Fourth Hokage's, who had sealed the Kyuubi in the first place. And even if we did have enough talent in sealing techniques, the effort of completely resealing the Kyuubi would probably kill one of us, and we can't afford losing _anyone_. Obviously, our numbers are too small," he said, glancing at the other eight, including Akamaru, "and no one here is expendable. On the other hand, merely strengthening a seal may prove to be more within our reach and skill."

There was a moment of silence as everyone pondered this.

"So," Shikamaru said, sitting up. "I don't suppose anyone here has an ability to apply our own methods of sealing to Naruto's seal? Anyone?"

Sai, who had said nothing before, nodded. "I may have something that may help."

"Why do I have a feeling that I'm not going to like this?" Naruto asked sadly. "Tell me, am I not going to like this?"

Sai smiled another fake smile to Naruto. "That depends," Sai said, almost _cheerfully_. This did not bode well.

"Depends on what?" Naruto asked suspiciously at the rather pleased sound in Sai's voice. The former member of the ANBU smirked, almost like how Sasuke sometimes did when they were younger..

"What's your opinion on tattoos?"

...Oh hell.

* * *

(1) Naming a kid Yamada Taro is basically the equivalent of naming your kid John Doe. ...You just don't _do_ that to children.

* * *

**My Thinking Corner**

I wasn't sure where I should have even stuck that flashback. I wasn't planning on having one this early on in the story, but the chapter was so short I couldn't stand it, so I managed to push it all the way from only ten to fifteen pages. I hope Tam Li (or Li Tam?) wasn't too repelling. I didn't really want to put too many OCs in this fic, whether they were important or not, but it can't be helped. Anyway, I wanted to write something outside of a shinobi's point of view without being in Dumbledore's point of view. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that makes sense.

Anyway... not much happens here... Just a filler?

I'm hoping it was, at least, informative, if not funny.

Ugh, anyway, I went to one of my cousin's birthday party. I was so pissed. I had to leave my precious computer just to go. And then some kids threw a diaper, missed their intended target, and it nearly hit me. The diaper did, anyway. The stuffing went everywhere, so I ended up washing my arms in freaking hot water because I couldn't get the feeling of 'bleugh'ness off of me. I got so mad. I didn't mean to, but I ended up yelling at them. I don't usually yell. But I seem to be doing that a lot recently. Like the week before the party, another little kid threw a birthday card that hit me in the eye. It was so embarrassing. I ended up saying 'SHIT' really loudly. _Everybody _in the house heard that. And it's a pretty big house...

Anyway, I've got finals this week. Eargh... I really ought to be studying. Gotta find my textbooks, byebye.

Wait a minute... I've got finals in two days. ...Holy crap, I REALLY need to find my textbooks! O.o


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Sacrifices and Strategies

"_This..._" Shikamaru said decisively as they ran away from the teahouse. "This has _got_ to be the _worst _coincidence in the history of our really bad coincidences!"

"Are they following us?" Naruto asked, with a slightly panicked sound in the back of his throat. "No, they aren't following us! Wait, shit, no they are following us!"

"Relax," Ino reassured him. "You've got us backing you up. There's nothing to worry about. They pick a fight with us, and they'll have all of us going after them."

"Kiba!" Sakura shouted at the Inuzuka, who was currently running ahead of them. "Slow down! We can't run that fast!"

"Right!" he said, slowing down with the rest of them. "Sorry. I got a bit carried away."

"Don't do it again," she said as they all ran. "It probably looks odd enough that we're all running at the same time at the same speed. And we're going very quickly already. We don't want to run at speeds that will draw a huge amount of attention to us."

Naruto was about to nod and agree when he looked to his left. "...Oh shit."

"What's wro—? _Oh_." Kiba spotted Tam driving on the street with the two wizards in the car with him.

"'Oh shit' is right," Sai said. ((A/N: Yay, he said something!))

So... their employer was with _them_. The shinobi made a sharp turn to the right and managed to avoid them in the traffic. Making several twists in their path and avoiding being seen as much as they possibly could, they were puzzled to see that they were still being pursued.

"How are they still following us...?" Shikamaru mumbled. "They've got to have some sort of method of tracking us down. They haven't seen all of our faces and whenever we go around two corners, they _still _follow. Ino. Call Neji."

The blond girl pulled a radio out of her purse and, placing the headphones onto her head, spoke into the microphone. "Neji! Neji, where are you?"

"_Just left the casino. Akamaru's with me..._" they heard him respond.

"Wizards following us," she said. "We're eighty-two meters south, forty-three east of Tam's. You follow and watch!"

"_Got it. I see all of you._"

"Location?"

"_Fifty meters behind you, thirty behind Tam, and old man, and a scarred man. They are the one's following you?_"

"Yeah," Ino said to him. "Tam's driving them, right?" she asked, just to make sure.

"_Yes._"

The shinobi were then glad that there was a decent amount of traffic preventing the wizards from catching up completely. It might get hard to explain to anyone who saw them running by how they managed to suddenly increase their speed to match the speed of a fast-moving vehicle.

"Alright, splitting up," Ino said when Shikamaru nodded, giving her the signal.

"Sakura, headphones out. You, Naruto, and Sai go left at the light. Ino, Kiba, go straight ahead with me! When you separate, head back to HQ and start packing," he ordered as they pushed themselves slightly harder to move faster. "Necessities only."

And the group split up into two smaller groups.

After giving the wizards a few moments to follow a specific group, Ino called in on Neji again. "Neji, did they go left or straight?"

"_Still following... they went straight. They're after you guys._"

"Alright," Shikamaru said, "Kiba, you go. Headphones out and listen in just in case. In fact, Ino, tell Sakura to get everyone to take their headphones out."

"_I hear you_," Sakura said. "_We've got them._"

Shikamaru, wearing his as well, nodded. "Right, they're either following Kiba, myself, or Ino."

He frowned to himself. It had been himself, Ino, Kiba, Akamaru, and Naruto who had been in on the mission. Akamaru was with Neji, so it was obvious that it was not the dog being followed.

He had originally suspected Naruto of being used to trace the entire group, since he had made the most contact with the target, Albus Dumbledore, and had also made the boldest moves against them, followed closely by Kiba.

He sent Naruto with Sakura and Sai so that if his suspicions were correct, they'd almost definitely be pursued by the wizards. But they were not correct, and the wizards continued to follow _his_ group.

Ino had made the most contact with the largest number of wizards, but among them was only one qualified adult and a numerous amount of hospitalized children, all of whom she had effectively knocked out. She was the least likely to go. Shikamaru himself and Kiba were more likely to have been tracked after Naruto. He had attacked a rather powerful wizard down in the dungeons, as well as two rather young witches,_ possibly _formidable for their ages. Kiba had attacked and managed to become subdued momentarily by two wizards and a witch, making him next most likely.

"Kiba, you're off. Go straight at the next turn."

With a nod, the Inuzuka ran ahead, forgetting to limit his speed, though Shikamaru didn't care to reprimand them. This was, after all, a huge emergency. The precautions and the standards that they had set for themselves long ago were almost completely forgotten.

"Ino, you take charge," Shikamaru said distractedly. Immediately, the blond began issuing directions to the others as Shikamaru reviewed mentally how they could have possibly been tracked, trying to remember every single detail, significant or not, of that mission. Magic. Most wizards were accustomed to magic, not technology. They were probably using some sort of 'mystical' way to track them, but despite all the abnormalities of magic, there _had_ to be some sort of rule.

'Got it...' he thought grimly.

"_Shikamaru_!" Ino said suddenly.

"What?" he said, noticing her slightly flushed face. Damn... slightly off topic, but they really were getting out of shape.

"They're following _us_," she said.

"Alright," he said, speaking into the headphones. "Everyone's reporting back to HQ, right?"

"_Right_," they all said.

"Ino and I are last, and we're splitting up. Whoever is being followed keeps on running, and the other also returns to pack belongings. I'll issue further orders from there."

Shikamaru personally hoped it was himself who was being followed. He was by no means the fastest or the most durable of the whole group, but he was certainly more lasting in the long run (quite literally at he moment) than Ino.

Plus, unlike Ino, he hadn't worn heels to work that morning.

He and Ino parted ways for the moment.

"Neji! Who are they following?" he asked.

"_Ino_," the Hyuuga responded. "_They're following Ino._"

"_Oh hell_," Ino panted through the headphones.

"_Kiba, Akamaru has ran ahead_," Neji said.

"_Oh, don't worry. Ino, you see Akamaru and you jump on his back_."

"_What? But—_"

"_Don't worry. You're not _too _heavy_."

"_After all this is over, I'm going to kick you, you stupid dog!_" Ino shouted.

In the meantime, Shikamaru was heading straight to their apartments for their equipment.

The apartment complex that they couldn't quite manage to call home, lacked security devices like cameras and other things like elevators, which made it easier for shinobi to run up the stairwells at full speed without other residents spotting them.

As disappointed as Shikamaru was that they had been caught, he was relieved, at least, by the fact that the scene that met his eyes was completely orderly. Most of them had finished packing up the essentials.

"Money."

"Got it," Kiba said, holding up their 'checkbooks'. "And food."

"Clothing."

"Here," Neji said, holding it a notebook.

"Equipment?"

"I have it," Sai said, holding up a cheap notebook.

"Medical equipment? And cooking utensils?"

Sakura held up a small kit. Full of paper.

"My laptop?"

"In the bag over there," Sakura said, pointing at a large beat up bag near the door.

"Neji, where's Ino?" Shikamaru asked him.

"She's safe, still riding on Akamaru," Neji said.

"And the wizards?"

"Lost in traffic for the time being."

Shikamaru turned on the radios again. "Ino, up here."

He knew what to do. It may have been a bad series of coincidence—Naruto failing to assassinate Albus Dumbledore, their cover being blown, the soon-to-be destruction of their own apartments—however... no matter how unfortunate it may have been, Shikamaru would make the most he could out of it.

He could.

It was entirely possible. After all, he had planned for Ino to leave anyway. If Shikamaru worked carefully, everyone—shinobi and wizards both—would end up playing into his hands.

"_Right_," Ino said, breathing heavily through the radio. "_I'm coming up_." And not even five minutes after her response, Ino and Akamaru were in the doorway.

"So," Shikamaru said to Ino. "It seems they are following _you_..."

"Yeah..." she said, wincing at the looks that weren't on anyone's faces. It bothered her that no one seemed to really care that they had to run away from an enemy. Especially now that, even though they couldn't bear to call this world home, they had at least adjusted to this new environment.

Because of her, they had to move. And they didn't seem to care.

It just didn't seem right.

"Sorry guys," Ino said to them.

"It's... fixable," Shikamaru muttered with a frown. "I think know how to correct this mistake."

"That's good," she said slowly, feeling rather uncomfortable with all of the fixed stares on her.

As Ino turned around to leave, Shikamaru pulled out his personal notebook, filled with the runes he used to store his sharpest weapons, and pulled out two kunai.

It would be best to do this while she was still unaware.

Throughout the apartment complex, the residents heard an earsplitting shriek.

* * *

"Hm..." Dumbledore thought to himself as they followed the path of the hair clip. The gentle tugging sensation had lessened and was now leading into two separate paths. 

"What is it?" Moody grumbled, his eyeball rolling in every which direction. He disliked Muggle technology and distrusted anything he didn't understand—which just so happened to include the mechanics of Tam's vehicle.

"I do believe that our friends have already analyzed our method of tracking them down and are currently working to throw us off..." he mused. Clever... These children were very clever...

"Is that even possible?" Tam asked them, glancing alertly in all directions as he possibly could. At the speed he was going, the police would probably arrest him. However, thanks to Dumbledore's charms, the odds of the police even noticing them were slim-to-none. "I mean, I don't know much about magic, but I thought tracking spells were impossible to throw off."

"Oh, there is no spell in the world is completely foolproof," Dumbledore said to the man. "No, but I don't think that any fullblood wizard could possibly discern the weaknesses in a spell. Especially a spell as complicated as the Tracking Charm. We have a very sharp group on our hands."

"So how are they doing it?" Moody asked.

"I can't say anything for sure yet," he replied, "but I know for sure that you may go straight ahead or turn left. Either direction may be the correct one—I cannot tell which."

"It's got to be left," Tam said, glancing at the signs on the street. "I remember from their applications before and I'm pretty sure that this is the street they live on."

"I find it pretty odd that you were helping them out from the beginning," Alastor grumbled, his normal eye fixed on the nervous squib. "You didn't even check their backgrounds?"

"Ehehe..." he laughed anxiously. That man and that eye of his... Why couldn't he just point them both in one direction like a normal person?! "Well..."

"_Well_?"

"Well, they looked like they really needed the help," he said meekly, remembering the rather sorry state they were all in when one of them had asked about the 'Help Wanted' sign in the window. They all looked so pitiful that he had given them all tasks without a second thought.

It was probably a stupid mistake on Tam's part.

"This is the only apartment on the block," Tam said, pulling up in the driveway and parking his car. "This must be the place."

"It feels like it," Dumbledore said, feeling the tug strengthen and the second one ebb away slightly. It must have been his proximity to this target and the distance between the other that caused this change in balance.

"Well then, let us find our assassins," the headmaster said cheerfully as they walked past a grungy long-haired man, presumably homeless, on the sidewalk and entered the shabby building.

The person at the front desk said nothing and paid little attention to the three men who walked up the stairs. There was no security check of any sort. As they walked up the stairs, Dumbledore felt the tugging sensation increase until they reached the fourth floor.

Walking down the hallway, there was only one door left ajar, and that, quite coincidentally, was the one where the feeling was strongest.

Carefully creeping inside, Alastor paused.

"No one's inside," he announced, stepping boldly inside the room. Tam and Dumbledore followed after him and glanced around at the disastrous apartment room.

"Hm... interesting," Dumbledore said, glancing at what appeared to be random scribbles on the wall. Runes? It didn't look like anything recognizable to Alastor and Tam. Which was to be expected, of course.

Dumbledore had much more experience in this field than the both of them combined (though it might as well have just counted for Alastor alone, as Tam knew almost nothing about magic.

"You'd _think_," Moody grumbled, leaning on the wall to shake off the dirty laundry on his wooden leg, "that these were just sloppy _university _students rather than trained killers."

The room inside looked as if a tornado had struck. Dirty laundry lied strewn all across the floor. The drawers were emptied out. Then again... aside from the blankets, the futons, and the clothes on the floor, these rooms were otherwise bare of everything except for a few paintings on the wall. Paintings that Tam was sure that had been done by Taro. They all had his 'flair'.

There were few items in this room that were unnecessary. There were blankets, clothes, a lamp, and a number of books, papers, and magazines. It seemed rather barren inside. The room also had a fan at the window that was actually still running. It was positioned so that someone could lie on their back and watch the sky as the fan blew the air out of the window for him.

Tam knew for a fact that this was probably Shikamaru's spot. The man enjoyed watching the clouds in the sky. There was also the faint scent of smoke. In Japan, the legal smoking age was twenty, but Tam never commented on Shikamaru's habits. Once believing that they were all squibs like him, he assumed that they were following wizarding laws, where there were no age limitations for smoking. After realizing they were just Muggles, he chose not to comment on his cigarettes. Shikamaru always had a rather bothered look on his face anyway, so Tam usually avoided direct confrontations with him. .

"Well, actually, I think they're a bit of both and neither," Tam said hesitantly as Alastor turned his eye on him. "Like, they're young student-like Muggles but also the killers that you claim them to be."

"What do you mean by _that_?"

"Well, they're about the age that they should be in a university right now, but I definitely know that they aren't in any college at all," the man explained. "And according to what you told me earlier, these guys are possibly assassins, and I must admit, they _have_ done some rather suspicious things in my shop before—"

"What do you mean by that?" Alastor immediately said again.

"Well, there was this one time that someone tried to rob us," Tam said, briefly passing by the bedrooms to glance inside. "It didn't go so well. One of the girls—she didn't work for me but occasionally helped in the kitchen for a bit of extra cash—well, she ended up throwing practically all of the kitchen knives at him and the next thing the man knew, he was pinned to the wall with these...these _huge _butcher knives and even a few butter knives outlining every inch of his body. I'm telling you, that man was scared for his life. And I don't blame him. I probably would have passed out from fright. The girl, she said that her family used to be obsessed with the circus and made her learn things like that when she was little."

"And you believed that?"

"I believed a lot of things," Tam said. "_Anyway_, these guys are trained, definitely, but... they just don't seem like the coldblooded killers that we always imagine."

"They never appear as how we imagine," Moody said. "Still, it _is_ hard to believe that these...school kids... that they'd be killing at, what, twenty-five?"

"Actually, more like eighteen," Tam said. "Muggles start universities at around eighteen years of age."

"_Absurd_," Moody grumbled, shaking his head.

"Age aside," Dumbledore interrupted, "perhaps we should get back on task?"

"Hn." Moody limped towards an ink painting without another word. It was a rather impressive piece, about two meters high and looking as if it had been drawn by a professional. Much to the other two's confusion, Alastor pressed his ear against the wall and knocked on it.

"What is it?" Dumbledore asked. Moody frowned at the edge of the painting, which was rather stained and dirty, and the wall, which was also rather stained and dirty. He suddenly grabbed the scroll-like paper and tore it down to reveal...

...Absolutely nothing. It was just another spot on the wall, exactly like all of the _other_ parts of the wall.

"...What is it?" Dumbledore repeated. He inspected a tiny pouch that he had found when he had entered the room. Clever...

"It's nothing, Mad-Eye," Tam said.

"It's not _nothing_," Alastor said derisively. "It's just an _illusion_. A rather clever one, I might say."

"You can see through it?" he asked, unsure of the powers of Mad-Eye's eye.

"Heck no," he growled, looking rather impressed, which was extremely uncharacteristic of the ex-auror. "Whatever it is that they made, it's _good_. But look at the dirt and dust on the walls. It matches perfectly with the wall underneath the painting."

"So?" Tam said.

"_So_ you need to take a look at the painting. It's a bit dirty itself. And rather stained. Let's say you're not a well-off squib. Let's pretend that you're a broke kid who can't really get a job that requires an identity. When you press something flat against the wall, leave it there, and remove it about a month later, you'll probably find that the wall underneath is slightly cleaner than the part that was not covered, as well as whatever covered it as well."

"I get it!" Tam said excitedly.

"Takes a fool not to," Alastor Moody grumbled, shooting down Tam's enthusiastic spirit. The ex-auror rolled his magical eye. Amateurs. "This is definitely some kind of spell," he said, magically zooming in on the wall with his eye. "The walls here are too perfect and actually blend in with the dirty parts of the wall."

He held up his hand to press it against the barrier. "Looks pretty solid thou—"

The ex-auror had attempted to lean on the spelled wall and his hand went through, nearly falling inside. "Nevermind," he muttered. The three walked straight through the illusion and found themselves in a much neater environment.

There were some cheaper furniture, but at least it was actually _there_. There were clothes in the closet, instead of strewn all about the floor. Plus, unlike in the other apartment room, there was _food_ in the refrigerator device that Muggles used to keep their meals cool. Tam and Dumbledore stood still as Moody inspected all aspects of the room with his magical eye.

"Well, this has been a bit pointless," Moody said. "Informative, but pointless."

"How much could you possibly tell just from looking at things?" Tam asked.

What a noob. ((A/N: XD))

"Well," he began. "First of all, we know that there are seven people living here."

"Eight, you mean," Tam said. "There were eight people."

"Not anymore," Moody said. "There are different styles of clothing in these two... dwellings. You can tell by their style of clothing. For the boys, it's obvious. There are two futons in each of the two bedrooms, plus a futon in the living room. I suppose that the boys were too... courteous to share a room with the women. The one who slept in the living room had a dog. Either that, or he sheds _really_ badly. With the girls here, you can't tell by the number of beds. There are two of them sharing a mattress."

"How can you tell with the mattress?"

"Well, if you inspect their underclothing, you could see that they have different bra sizes," Moody said, ignoring Tam's red face. "Oh, come on, we're all adults here."

"Well you're the only adult here who could probably look at a naked girl while she still wears her clothes," Tam mumbled. Almost as if he were jealous.

Moody ignored him. "_Anyway_, before I was rudely interrupted, two of the boys in one room did not seem to get along. There is an extremely bold line, painted in red ink, running across the room, marking their boundaries. Of course, considering the fact that there are five boys and a dog living in one dwelling, they could always switch. But they don't. Therefore, one unlucky one is paired with another with a particularly abrasive personality. Or just a plain loser.

"There was a third girl here. _Was_. Her things seem to be all packed away neatly in the corner. Under that incense thing. I suppose these guys are _extremely_ modest and are unwilling to sleep with the girls. Or perhaps it feels too awkward with them. Or maybe the girls dislike overbearing company. Particularly the company of those who don't keep their area clean. Whatever the reason, the boys... well, men don't wish to intrude on the two girls. Still, even though they may not sleep over, it's obvious that they spend a lot of time together."

"How do you know that?" Tam asked.

"The kitchen in the men's rooms is completely bare. The only thing they have are papers in the cupboards that I can't even read. It's in Japanese. They tore down a chunk of the _wall_ just for convenience."

"...And now that I think about it," Tam said, "I don't think the owner would have appreciated that..."

"Well, I suppose that since the men's side is so severely overpopulated, they stick all the junk in their side and spend most of their time with the girls, where it's cleaner and more homely. Plus, the wall between kitchen and the empty extra bedroom had been knocked down as a living and dining room. That televisor—"

"Television."

"Whatever. The telly and the radio are cheap, but they're positioned so that everyone can see it if they sit around the table as a certain way. The plates, cups, and bowls are all plastic. Since some are in the sink, we can assume that they wash and reuse them when they can. The disposable chopsticks are in bags labeled 'Tam's Teahouse'. Yours?"

"...Yes."

So they _were_ the ones stealing his chopsticks...

"Theres only one large pot, a small one, a frying pan, and a lot of plastic spoon. They have no knives and forks. I don't know why," Moody said. "But here's where things get _interesting..._"

"What is it?" Tam asked.

"This window here," Moody said, hobbling over to a wall, "is filled with your marker ink. The erasable kind. And the cork board has all sort of scribble and paper on it. Notes all over the place. And that stack of papers—look at what's on top of it. _Very_ interesting."

"A castle?"

"Close. It's a hand-drawn, ink painting of Hogwarts. You probably wouldn't know it, but that is one pretty damn accurate blueprint, if you ask me."

Tam leaned in towards the cork board. In the corner, underneath some of the notes, was a picture of them all, taken in photo booths. One particularly amusing one had a picture of a girl with remarkable resemblance to Naruto groping a frantic looking Taro. Smiling, he took several of the photos and pocketed them each.

"Well now," Dumbledore said, reaching for some sort of band lying on top of the box of packed clothes. "This is interesting..."

"Sir, you shouldn't touch that," Tam said suddenly.

"Is it dangerous?" Moody growled.

"No, but it's disrespectful..." he answered.

"What is it?" Albus asked.

"From the looks of it... Wait... well, it make sense now," Tam murmured.

"Are you going to answer the question?" Moody asked.

"Well... one of the girls, I hadn't seen her in a while," he said slowly, with an odd look on his face. "About a year, actually, but that just looks like some sort of... some sort of a homemade shrine."

"To a god?"

"To the _dead_."

Albus paused, and then pocketed the band of metal and cloth.

"Sir!"

Albus Dumbledore—a genius, famous wizard throughoutht world, strongest living wizard alive... stealing from a dead person. Something wasn't quite right here.

"Well, I don't think she's haunting us right now," Albus said, downright cheerfully. "Alastor, we may want to Apparate out of here soon. Tam, hold on to my arm."

"Why?" Tam asked, as he did so.

"Because there is a special rune on the wall in the men's side," Dumbledore said, "that was set for thirty minutes."

"What do you mean? Thirty minutes for what?"

"Well, we _now_ have a little less than a minute to escape this building before that 'explosion tag', well, explodes."

Moody's eyes widened and he immediately disappeared with a 'crack!' and Dumbledore did the same with Tam holding onto his arm.

They reappeared on the street with another crack, landing in front of the blind homeless man with long disheveled hair. Looking rather confused, the man ducked and covered as if someone was firing a gun.

"No need to Obliviate," Dumbledore said, taking a glance at the paranoid man on the ground.

"Yeah, he's blind," Tam said under his breath. "Couldn't possibly see anyth—"

He was cut off by a huge explosion only four stories above them. Chunks of the building rained down on the group and Dumbledore, Mad-Eye, and Tam managed to Apparate a few meters away, safe and out of range of the falling buildings.

...Which was more than what they could say for the homeless man though.

On the bright side, at least that man probably wasn't hungry anymore.

"Every moment delayed here is a moment wasted," Dumbledore said.

"That's a bit cold," Tam said. "A man just got crushed under there."

"Wait a minute—" Moody began.

"Say nothing, Alastor," Albus said in a serious tone. "This situation is extremely delicate. Tam, we have one more lead. Are you still willing to drive us and help lead us to the attempted murderers?"

"O-of course," Tam said nervously. He was getting more involved in this situation than he had intended in the first place. He didn't _want_ to go after these people. After two years with them, he had grown close enough to call them... well, not _friends_, but at least acquaintances. Plus, he didn't want to get killed if these people really were trained hitmen.

"Where are they now?" Moody asked Dumbledore as the headmaster reactivated the Tracking spell.

"Close by," Dumbledore said. "They are very close by..."

* * *

Dumbledore, Tam, and Alastor briskly walked past a van, making a beeline towards the owner of the hair pin. In the meantime, as Dumbledore allowed the Tracking spell to lead the way, he mused about their targets. 

It had been a clever trick that these children had done. One of them must have had a brilliant amount of logic—like Miss Granger—to have deduced that the Tracking spell tracked one's 'essence' and have managed to throw them off slightly, leading them to the apartments rather than the original target.

For example, when a person wanted to locate a part of their body after being Splinched, the trained and experienced Ministry personnel watching over the students would use a Tracking spell to locate the missing body part. Not many ever thought about why the Tracking spell would be attracted to the presence of even a mere body part. The object being used to trace the person must have a significant amount of exposure to the owner. The longer the owner wore or had the object in question, the more accurate the object could be used to locate it. The object would have a stronger attraction to it's owner.

All belongings left behind had been destroyed by that explosion tag. And all Dumbledore had managed to grab, to his disappointment, was the hitai-ate of a deceased girl. _That _certainly wouldn't work. The tracking spell would no longer work if the owner was dead. The only other case that the Tracking spell would not work would probably be if the item was actually reunited with the owner.

Another way to throw off the Tracking spell, aside from killing the owner, would be to take a piece of his or her body part. Normally, that wouldn't be a very pleasant experience.

But Dumbledore understood now. He was working with a group of geniuses. They might just manage to figure a way out of this Tracking charm. Therefore, he needed to be just as clever as them, though he would have to work hard. After all, it was seven minds against his own.

In any case, with his greater experience and his use of magic, he was sure he could hold his own, even if only for a short while.

Plus, Dumbledore often had a bit of luck on his side—for example, the pieces of the building falling apart over the man on the street.

The man was not as lucky, but Dumbledore, at least, was lucky enough to avoid the debris.

Still, their ability to move around and adapt to difficult situations, to avoid capture, was almost astounding. These children were experts. However, the trap in their apartments that nearly killed the wizards and at the same time destroyed most evidence of their presence... it was only a temporary remedy.

Dumbledore was eager to find out what they would do next.

In any case, he found that their target was in a nearby building. Tam had spotted the girl on the roof. This new location was much fancier with these 'evalators', which was very convenient, as Alastor did _not_ look like he was up to the challenge of running twelve flights of stairs.

"Wait, sirs," a man said, perhaps around seventeen. "We'll have to check for identification."

"Oh, here," Tam said, handing him his driver's license. This man smelled like a living, breathing fountain pen. Probably a desk clerk who decided to leave his seat and his precious bottle of ink to inspect the two robe-wearing foreigners. "And these two are from Europe. They left their identification in their hotel room here. We're coming back for it, though."

"Oh, in that case, go ahead," the man said with a rather blank looking smile. "The two elevators over there are down, but the one in the middle should be fine. Have a nice day."

Tam quickly led Albus and Alastor into the elevator and frantically pressed the button inside.

"Eh, I suppose mashing the buttons isn't going to help speed the process up," he said with a shrug, "but it does make me feel a bit better."

Irritated by the slow pace that they were rising, Alastor waved his wand to increase the speed of the evalator.

But nothing happened.

He tried it again. Three more times, and three more failures.

Alastor and Tam realized that magic was now useless and the younger man began to panic slightly.

'_We're playing right into their hands_,' Dumbledore mused. '_There's nothing we can do but plot and wait for the ride to finish..._'

Eventually, they reached the top floor where the alleged attacker had ran to, but Dumbledore found a rather shocking scene before them as they ran out of the evalator.

The blond woman that they had been following was now fighting alongside a blond man, attempting to defend themselves against a familiar looking man with long hair and pale eyes.

The wizards moved discreetly out of the evalator but stayed out of sight, watching the scene unfold from the sidelines.

"_Gomen nasai_!" they heard the blond woman cry out desperately.

"She's the one we're following," Dumbledore identified in a low voice.

"That's Ino," Tam whispered. Alastor nodded. That was the only Japanese phrase he knew anyway. "She said '_I'm sorry_'. That's Naruto and that's Neji."

Naruto shouted something at Neji as well.

"_This is wrong..._" Tam translated. "_Don't do this..._"

Neji replied with an expressionless face.

"_It can't be helped. It must be done,_" Tam said. He paused. "...Albus, I don't like the sound of _THIS_! _HOLY SHI_—"

Moody cut Tam off the quickest way he could—by hitting the horrified man right in the face.

Neji had pulled out an odd Muggle contraption in the shape of an L, seemingly from thin air, and pointed it at Ino. There was a deafening bang, louder than the sound of an Apparation. Naruto looked stunned and froze in his place, with closed eyes. Ino, with wide eyes, clutched her chest in pain and shock, stumbled backwards, and fell off the side of the building.

"He _shot _her," Tam whispered, pale and surprised, absently rubbing his nose, which was bleeding from when Moody had struck him.

"_Ino_!" Naruto shouted.

Neji said something in a low voice.

"I think he said, '_I'm done_'," Tam said weakly, stunned by the sudden death.

Naruto, looking visibly shaken stared at Neji, who spoke in Japanese again.

"_Your actions will be overlooked if you return with us peacefully_," Tam said.

Neji turned around towards the elevator that the wizards had been in just before. Dumbledore checked the Tracking Spell to see if the girl survived. There was no trace...

"I do believe..." Dumbledore said slowly. "...that the girl is now deceased."

Tam could have been expected to go through shock. Moody, on the other hand... he had a sort of glazed over look on his face. Perhaps this was just one death too much? It made little sense, however. He had witnessed far more personal and impersonal deaths on his job as an auror years ago, so why was he so shocked by this girl's death?

The tracking charm gave a little 'shake' before Dumbledore stopped it. It was probably just some sort of an aftereffect. He left Tam and Moody in their hiding places behind some sort of... Muggle thing to look at the sight below.

He spotted the blond girl sprawled out on the ground, a puddle of blood already finished pooling out beneath her still body. The man whom they had encountered earlier on the ground floor approached the body and pressed two fingers on Ino's neck. He immediately began shouting loudly.

"He's saying she's dead," Tam said, dull with shock. "Ino's dead. I didn't think they would kill their own _frien_—"

"That sound..." Alastor said suddenly. Sirens on the road were already approaching.

"An ambulance..." he said. "Muggle emergency personnel. They deal with on-the-scene injuries."

The man down below looked up towards the roof where Ino had fallen from, and Dumbledore, Alastor, and Tam immediately withdrew their heads from the edge of the building.

"I don't think they saw us," Tam said, taking deep calming breaths. Down below two brown-haired medics left the back of the ambulance. They were dressed in clean white uniform with face masks to prevent exposure to bodily fluids, disposable gloves, gowns, and caps. ((A/N: I've been studying that in class, lol.)) They loaded the body carefully into the back of the ambulance vehicle and shut the door. "Do you think it was our fault?"

Moody wrinkled his face in disgust. "Nah. But we ought to leave," he said slowly, with the hint of an accent. It was probably the shock. He touched his magical eye anxiously.

"You're right," Dumbledore said. He waved his wand at the now useless hairpin. "_Portus_. We'll return to our own rooms and meet with Horace. Tam, thank you for your help. We'll drop you off at the inn as well. After that, I will make another Portkey so that Horace, Alastor, and I will return to Hogwarts. And then you, Alastor, may Floo home."

"Er, right," Alastor said gruffly. Tam grabbed a small corner of the pin, and then Alastor did himself. They disappeared and retreated from the scene of the crime.

* * *

**Flashback-ish  
Articles a year ago issued by the Daily Prophet  
June 1996**

DEATH EATER ATTACK ON AMESBURY  
_SUSPECTED GIANT INVOLVEMENT_

On May 30, 1996, a devastating attack led by You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters took place in the entire west country. Stonehenge has been torn apart and shows obvious signs of giant involvement. With these recent turn of events, fear is being struck in the hearts of all residents of Britain.

There have been only eighty survivors in total, ten of them Muggle tourists and the rest Wizardkind. Obliviators and Medi-wizards were on the scene in moments to heal and Obliviate victims...

It was Arnold Peasegood, the head of Obliviation Headquarters, who claims that, "With the torn victims mourning over lost companions, this has been one of the worse cases yet in terms of casualties..."

More information concerning this tragedy will be continued on page B4.

-

DECEASED

Amelia Bones, 48, Head of the Law of Magical Law Enforcement. Killed by Avada Kedavra. Possibly by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named himself. Body found by muggles and described in life as 'middle-aged woman who lived alone'.

Igor Karkaroff, 57, former headmaster of Durmstrang Institute. Remains were found in abandoned shack. Cause of death unknown—body found in small burnt scraps.

Emmeline Vance, 65, Auror. Body found at Number 10 Downing Street, London.

Randolph Ollivander, 84, professional wandmaker. Disappeared in early June, now presumed dead. No signs of a struggle. His wife, only member left of family, disappeared as well.

Florian Fortescue, 24, owner of ice cream parlor, expert on medieval wizardry, and descendant of a former headmaster of Hogwarts. Disappeared on June 2nd. Presumed dead.

List continues on page A3.

-

CHANG FAMILY REUNITED!

After days of searching for survivors, Logan Chang finally found his daughter Cho after the devastating giant assault on the West Country. Comatose, but alive, Miss Chang has been relocated to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

Miriam Strout, Healer in charge of the Cho Chang ward, says there is a high possibility that she will come out of her coma without memories, but otherwise completely fine. Other healers, on the other hand, suspect possible damage to the brain or permanent injuries.

It seems now though that if or when she wakes up, her mind may be clear of all memories or just plain damaged.

Nevertheless, the chances of survival for Miss Chang looks good and all members of her family are glad to say that they look forward to seeing their daughter up and running in another Quidditch game.

* * *

dark672: Short but to the point! Thanks for the review!  
celtic-pride: Heh, you're on the FFWD forum too! If you have any questions, you could always ask it in a review. ...Or on the Fanfiction Writer's Den, since it's been only so rarely yet spontaneously active lately.  
Peter Kim: Hell yeah.  
blade75: Only _almost_ as good, eh? Lol. Thanks for reviewing. And you're right! About the first part, anyway. I didn't specify who in the Akatsuki exactly were sent except for a few. You're right about the first two, at least. ...Crap, I just realized I made a mistake earlier that can't be fixed... Gah... Oh well. Thanks for the luck I borrowed from you for the finals. NGTH... well... it's not exactly on hiatus. Just stuck on a fifteen meter tall writer's block. Meh... As for what I am, I can't really tell you whether you're right or wrong here... Oh well. 

Oh, a reviewer was also kind and sharp enough to notice an error in my Physics in the prologue of this story.

(part of) Fast's Review: Hey I liked this, but I found a really minor problem. Your physics was off. If you throw something straight up from your car wjile going the object will have the same forward velocity as you do, and (if you neglect air resistance) will land right back where it was thrown from. Besides that I liked it.  
My Review Response: My physics has ALWAYS been off. Yeah, my example was horrible. On the other hand, the reason that an object thrown in the air in a moving vehicle is because of inertia. I used to travel a lot by car all over the US and, believe me, me and all of my siblings were as bored as hell. We threw hair bands, snacks, crayons, candy boxes and all sorts of shit up in the air for absolutely no reason. We always caught them. And you're right, they did stay in the relatively same place, BUT there was always an almost insignificant difference from where it was thrown and landed in the x- and z-axis (...I /think/ it would be called the z-axis).  
It's just that Deidara's arm and the train did not share the same inertia. Therefore the train continued to move and Deidara's arm did not. Perhaps if Deidara had been in motion, moving as fast as the train and in the same direction, it would have moved with the train.  
Thanks for the review and for pointing out my physics-impaired mistake! Just so you know, I'm copying and pasting this review and response in the next chapter, by the way. Merry Christmas (Eve)!

* * *

**My Thinking Corner**

I don't really like Cho Chang... I was sad to bring her back to life... Meh. Anyway, I forgot to mention this earlier, but Cho Chang _doesn't exist_ in Harry's sixth year. Well, not that she doesn't exist, but she's not there. Earlier that year, she had been caught up in the giant attack and 'disappeared'. I meant to mention that in earlier chapters and couldn't really figure out where to put it, so voila, I stick it here with a bunch of other random articles, all made up for the sake of taking up space. Plus, I couldn't figure out where to put the other little tidbits of information stuck in there.

Oh, and, aside from that one bit, I've been trying to keep it as cannon as possible. Li Tam is completely made up, but in JK Rowlings notes, they mention a Li Su in Harry's year. I think it was Harry's year. Well...that person existed sometime during Harry's stay at Hogwarts! I know that for sure! Anyway, I just tweaked things a bit so that Cho and Su are cousins, and Su and Tam (OC) are siblings.

Arnold Peasegood was not originally head of any obliviation thing. He was just an ordinary Obliviator who was mentioned in the seventh chapter of the GoF. I just found him again. He's mentioned on page 86 in my book. A part of the Accidental Magical Reversal Squad. That's not really necessary information for readers. I just mentioned it so that if I ever find that I need to know or remember this information, I'll have it online or somethere in my thinking corners to refer to. So _anyway, _here in my story, with everyone frightened by Voldemort's little reign of terror, they made an Obliviation department to try and keep Muggles as uninvolved as they possibly could, and he became the head of it.

Didi anyone else ever catch that Fortescue thing? I mean, in the book, they mentioned a past headmaster whose name was Fortescue. And then this guy gets dragged off by Death Eaters later. Anyone else puzzled by this? I've scoured the internet, and found that only a few people have bothered even commenting on it. My personal theory ((warning: not a serious theory!)) is that the Death Eaters wanted it so that after they took over the world, they could have free ice cream at the newly named, 'Florean Fortescue's Death Eater Ice Cream Parlor'. YEAH! Just kidding... but seriously, 'Fortescue the Ice Cream Guy' and 'Fortescue the Dead Headmaster Portrait on Dumbledore's Wall of Dead Headmaster Portraits'... does ANYONE think this coincidence is a bit odd? ...Yeah, it's probably just a coincidence. -.-

I think I've been working pretty hard lately. I'm still trying up update constantly before school restarts and stay about two chapters ahead of the public. By the way, I am aware that all of the "elevators" were spelled wrong.

Anyway...

**MERRY CHRISTMAS **(EVE for some) **TO EVERYONE READING THIS! ...AND EVERYONE NOT READING THIS TOO EVEN THOUGH IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT READING THIS!**

...And I realize now that this was politically incorrect, as well as almost every single review reply I sent out.

...Er...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

((suddenly remembers an episode of American Dad...))


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 05: The Master Plan! ...Pointless?

Ino stared at the blond figure on the ground. It was just... just... _Unbelievable. _No person could survive a fall like that. Not without some serious healing from a pack of experienced medic-nins. With the speed that the skull had hit the ground, Ino wondered vaguely who was going to clean up all the blood.

The splattered blood was soaked up in the blond hair. Small bits of hair lay on the ground around the body as well. The clothes were all stained. Limbs were bent at odd angles. The skull was definitely cracked open. The half-lidded eyes were a clear crystal blue.

Watching from far above the body formed in her own image, Ino watched people gather down below, most of them sickened by the sight of all the blood.

It _couldn't_ be her own body.

It _wasn't_.

"Do you think it was our fault?" she heard Tam ask.

"Nah. But we ought to leave," she said slowly.

* * *

_Earlier_

Ino was screamed at the top of her lungs as she beat Shikamaru senseless.

"_Aaaah_! _You_!" she shrieked, enraged. "I... I _hate _you! I can't believe _you_... _me_... _kunai_! _CUT_! ..._Eeaaaah_!"

She continued to beat him upside the head.

"Ow, ow, _ow_... How troublesome," he muttered, covering his head with his arms and crouching slightly. "You are no longer making sense."

Ino stopped mauling him for a moment to observe the damage her own boyfriend had inflicted upon her heavenly perfection.

Three inches.

_Three whole inches_.

"You didn't even cut my hair _straight_!" she cried out in despair, collapsing to the ground and pounding the floor with her fists, the very image of a child having a tantrum.

"Ino, you have, like, almost three feet of hair to spare," he said.

"Yes, well my hair is layered. _Layered_. I'll have to cut my hair and do measurements and...and..." Ino dramatically broke down, sobbing into her hands.

"Look," Kiba said impatiently. "_Neji_ didn't cry when we trimmed _his_ hair! Eh? Right?" Neji glared darkly at the Inuzuka for bringing that incident two years ago up.

"No, he _passed out_," she said scathingly. "Anyway, you only trimmed off, like, an _inch_ off his hair."

"Well, your hair is _still _longer than his," Naruto said to Ino.

"Not anymore!" she said angrily. She now had hair the same length as a _guy's_! No freaking way!

"Look, every second spent arguing is a second wasted," Shikamaru said, brushing her tantrum off. He took a few strands that he had stolen from her and sprinkled it across the room.

"What are you doing?" Ino said sulkily, watching Shikamaru leave a few strands here and there.

"I'm thinking that this might throw them off and buy us at least a little bit of time," Shikamaru said. "The wizards may be following us through our chakra signatures. Or they're just following anything containing our DNA. Or, perhaps, somehow a mix of both. I think I know a way we can throw them off for good. This actually kills two birds with one kunai. Here's what you guys are going to do..."

Shikamaru shared his plans with the others. Once he had finished, Neji left the room first. He pulled out one of Tenten's handmade explosion tags and hung it on the wall on the way out. Sakura took a deep breath, feeling nervous with the task given to her. Still, she nodded and accepted the duty Shikamaru assigned to her.

Naruto groaned upon hearing his part of the mission.

Why did he always get the worst roles?

* * *

Naruto and Ino ran past the grungy man on the street. 

"They're seconds away from turning into the parking lot," Neji muttered to them under his breath as he pulled out an ugly, dirty blanket over himself. He laid down on the sidewalk, hiding the lower half of his face under the blanket and his hair under a gray hat. "Go around the building and run away from behind it so they don't see you."

"Thanks," Naruto said, fighting back a grin.

"Nice look, by the way!" Ino said cheerfully as they left.

"Whatever..." Neji the Grungy Homeless Man muttered, moving so that the headset was completely covered by his head, hair, and hat.

Just moments later, Tam and the two wizards came running past them and into the rooms, which had now been emptied. It took a painfully long time for all of them to make it up the stairs. Surprisingly enough, it was the old man leading them. He moved slowly. The other man had a peg leg. Tam didn't seem to be able to use magic.

The old man was probably Dumbledore, using what appeared to be Ino's hairpin to lead them to their apartment. Neji informed the others of this in the microphone.

It would have been easier to just steal the hairpin and be done with it, but it wasn't part of '_The Plan_'. Shikamaru rarely allowed them to go off on their own while alone.

In any case, the wizards were taking a painfully long time. Still, Neji was perfectly content with lying on the ground as he waited for the perfect moment to activate one of Tenten's old explosion tags that she had left behind. But... they were starting to go through her stuff.

Neji sat up abruptly. _That damn old man was taking her hitai-ate_. He felt something burning in his chest. Sure, this wasn't completely the perfect opportunity, but he had left her belongings there to be _destroyed_. He didn't want anyone taking her things away. It felt disrespectful, allowing the wizards to steal from the dead.

His eyes almost twitching from anger, he activated the tag from the little notebook, where all weapons and tags were stored inside. Less than two minutes. All they had to do was wait for just a second.

'_Go ahead and collect her things_,' Neji thought snidely to himself. '_You won't leave with it._'

But he was wrong. In a blink of an eye, the two and a half wizards reappeared before him. Neji jumped, his broken sunglasses slipping slightly down his nose. He shifted nervously, not sure of what to do. He was sitting up already and hoped that his hat and hair was enough to hide the small earpieces tucked underneath.

Suddenly, the explosion tag above them went off, and chunks of the building began to fall from the sky. Neji, shirking the dirty blanket and hat, jumped out of the way as a piece landed where he had previously been lying just moments ago. Now that the debris blocked him from the sight of the wizards, he began to run in the same direction Naruto and Ino had gone earlier.

However, as Neji ran away, he noticed the peg legged man's mutated eye following his movement.

Neji used the group's unnamed and unofficial 'Notice-Me-Not' technique and ran faster.

He ran past the prepared van and spotted Kiba waving in the driver's seat. Spotting the building that was Naruto and Ino's destination, he ran past Sai, who was dressed as an employee, and ran up the stairs. Odds were that Naruto and Ino had already prepared the elevator.

Ino and Naruto were to go inside an elevator and, like in movies, leave through the top. Of course, they would have to reseal the ceiling. They'd take one of the prototypes of the chakra sealing tags that Sakura, Sai, and Tenten had prepared for Naruto two years ago and stick on top of the elevator. That way, when the wizards entered, they would not be able to get out—with or without magic. Or at least just until the doors opened for them. Then they would run up the walls of the chute to get to the roof as quickly as possible.

Neji reached the rooftop and found Naruto and Ino already there. Ino stood by the edge of the roof, waiting for the wizards to arrive.

"I see them..." she said in a low voice. "And... yep, they see me!"

They watched as the wizards ran inside the building. Once they were inside, Sai would help buy a few seconds of spare time, just in case those above were lacking in it. According to Shikamaru's plan, Ino was to take her position, which would be vital for her later mission, only after the wizards had gone inside the building. That way, they wouldn't see where she would be next.

Ino walked back slightly from the edge of the building, but suddenly spun around and ran for open air. She wasn't ordinarily used to most of the physical actions and tended to close her eyes when scared. Forcing herself to keep her eyes open, Ino jumped off the side of the building.

This was taking a big chance.

If someone were to see some woman jumping from one building, crossing over the street twelve stories below, and land far away on the roof of the building across street...

Then... well... oh well. Odds were that no one would believe their own eyes anyway. But the less people who spotted Ino, the better.

Ino gave Naruto and Neji a thumbs-up sign and then ducked down, directly across from them but completely hidden, except for a barely visible blond head peaking over the top of the ledge.

"The wizards are approaching," Neji said. "Only a few floors away."

Naruto created a kage bunshin who took its position next between Neji and Ino. He used the henge and became a perfect copy of Ino, and he made sure, by adding a dozen more layers, that the illusion would last a little bit longer in preparation of the number of hits he was going to be taking.

Neji pulled out Tenten's weapon book again and pulled out one of the smaller guns. He tucked it under his shirt and waited for the wizards' arrival, in which the shinobi would then pretend that they didn't notice presence of the wizards.

"Now!" Neji shouted. The elevator doors opened. Ino, on the other side of the street, squinted slightly, waiting for the wizards to finish moving around and watching for the perfect chance to take over.

"I'm sorry!" Naruto in Ino's form cried out in a desperate voice. Did she really sound that whiny?

"This is wrong!" the kage bunshin Naruto shouted. Ino watched Tam, Dumbledore, and the man with the strange eye settle down in a spot, probably thinking they were completely hidden from sight. Taking aim, she fired.

_Shintenshin no Jutsu! _("Mind Body Switch Technique")

"Don't do this!" the kage bunshin continued.

"It cannot be helped," Neji said coldly, playing the role of the indifferent killer perfectly. "It must be done." He pulled out a gun and, with only a brief moment of hesitation, he shot the real Naruto in the center of the chest.

No matter how prepared Naruto was for this, the impact of the bullet always destroyed his concentration. His eyes widened, changing from Ino's teal eyes to his own crystal blue hue. Nevertheless, he poured all of his efforts into maintaining the length of his hair, the color and style of his clothing, and the shape of his body.

Naruto/Ino and Neji's eyes met for a brief second. Neji kept his expression blank, showing no sign of alarm, to reassure Naruto that he still looked almost exactly like Ino.

Once he was sure of his appearance, Naruto allowed himself to stumble backwards and fall off of the side of the building. As he fell, he strengthened the illusion one more time and prayed that the henge would not shatter. He could not afford to lose his consciousness. He could not afford to allow his illusion to break, despite the pain that would probably wrack his body and concentration once his head made impact with the concret—

His friends were safe, he thought to himself as he struggled to maintain consciousness for just a little longer.

Everything was going to be fine...

* * *

Neji tensed slightly, hearing the sickening crack and thud on the concrete below. Must to his disgust, a shinobi's sensitive ears could pick up the sound of cracked bones even at this distance. 

He turned around to face Naruto's kage bunshin and silently let out a deep sigh of relief. Still, he couldn't help but feel concerned. If Naruto had completely lost consciousness when he hit the sidewalk, then he would have lost contact with all the techniques that he had been supporting with his chakra—the kage bunshin on the roof and the illusion of Ino's body down below on the sidewalk—all of which were vital for their escape. Of course, he was also definitely in devastating pain at the moment.

Almost directly behind him, Neji spotted Ino. They had decided earlier on that she would possess the one with the misfit eye. Neji had told them that the old man was the one leading them. He seemed to have the most powerful magic. If Ino possessed him, then she would also have to read his memory at the same time to find out how to use the spells. If she possessed Tam, then there was a chance that Dumbledore and the man would leave without him and then she might as well have to return to her body. And then her mission would remain incomplete.

"Ino!" the kage bunshin shouted to Naruto/Ino.

"I'm done," Neji said in a low voice. "Naruto... your actions against us will be overlooked if you return to us peacefully..."

The kage bunshin looked rather shaky. Neji spun around quickly but walked slowly. He did not want to leave the kage bunshin behind, after all. With Naruto probably less than even half-conscious below them, there was still a chance that he would completely fall unconscious. The kage bunshin paused, his solid appearance flickering slightly.

Realizing the risk they took by walking too slowly, Neji quickly grabbed the shadow clone by the wrist and pulled him inside the elevator, and none too quickly, because almost just as the doors closed, Naruto's kage bunshin completely disappeared. Which meant that the real Naruto, on the sidewalk down below, was unconscious.

Probably.

Hopefully.

Bunshins, no matter what style, always disappeared when the original was unconscious. Or dead.

Neji silently prayed to his ancestors that the idiot hadn't died. He was too used to the blond's presence to let him go so easily.

Finally reaching the bottom floor, Neji resisted the urge to run out and check to see if Naruto was alright. If those wizards above happened to look down as Neji was checking for Naruto's/Ino's pulse, they might consider it suspicious that he was checking for the wellbeing of someone he was trying to kill. Plus, they might notice that Naruto/the kage bunshin had mysteriously disappeared.

No, it would be best for them both to mysteriously disappear. There would be fewer questions for the wizards to come up with. Not 'where did one go?' or 'why did he leave?', but more like 'where are the both of them now?'

Neji casted a henge, becoming a stout officer with short cropped hair and a notepad. He met eyes with familiar man in the hotel uniform and maintained eye contact longer than any normal civilian would have, as if they were briefly trading information.

Neji covered his eyes with a pair of sunglasses he had discreetly grabbed from a nearby coffee table and used his Byakugan to look at the information Sai had written on his arm under his sleeve. He removed the sunglasses, tossing them aside and looked at Sai again, as if to make sure. He didn't want to feel sweet relief if he was just going to be disappointed by fate once again.

Sai nodded subtly, and Neji let out a silent sigh of relief. Naruto was still alive.

And, oddly enough, still disguised as Ino.

Outside, Neji spotted the ambulance, already there to pick up Naruto's/Ino's body. He could see the brown-haired medic grinning almost wolfishly through the face mask. Neji walked out of the building and pretended to be an officer inspecting the scene of the crime, holding out his notepad and pen, acting as though he was taking note of the crime scene.

"_He alright_?" Neji asked the medic in a low voice so that no one else could hear him.

"_He's alive_," Kiba confirmed cheerfully, his voice easily muffled by the face mask. "_Sakura loosened the regeneration seal the moment she saw Naruto falling from the building._"

Neji glanced at the pink-haired girl hidden from view inside the 'ambulance'. She gave him a thumbs up. Kiba and his own kage bunshin helped load the body up into the vehicle—a van that Kiba helped hijack earlier. It was a good fake. The genjutsu that Sakura and Shikamaru had casted over the van made it look like a genuine emergency vehicle.

Making sure that nobody saw, Neji climbed into the ambulance with the Kibas and Naruto, climbing into the front seat and taking a seat next to Shikamaru.

Sakura shook her head. "No matter how many times I see it, it still never ceases to amaze me," she said, nervously pulling up her sleeves and placing her hands over his head.

The unofficial team medic-nin looked rather pale. And Neji didn't blame her. She was just as good as any other seasoned medic, treating all wounds like an expert, even though she had only had about three years worth of training under Tsunade. Still, it was times like these that seemed to scare Sakura the most. Times when Naruto would make dangerous, life-risking stunts performed for the sakes of his friends. She and Naruto were all that were left of the original Team 7. For all she knew, Kakashi could've died while they were gone.

"I'm sure that the skull was shattered when he made impact," she said in a shaky voice. She winced at how pathetic she sounded and changed her tone to sound a bit more steadier, if not forced. "It's already reforming. Of course, a bit of extra healing could help. There's still always a possibility that he could suffer permanent damage... Or he might even die..."

"The bullet is still lodged in his chest," Neji informed them, pulling away from the hotel.

"I'll remove that once I'm finished with his head. I'm always scared that a piece of the skull might stay lodged in the brain and end up killing him or leaving him with damage to the brain or something. He's not completely infallible... Kiba, I'm going to be exhausted when I'm done healing him. You take out the bulle—"

"You're trusting _him_?" Shikamaru said derisively. "_No way_." He clambered into the back seats with them. "I'll use my shadow threads to take it out. They're a lot thinner than Kiba's kunai and steadier than his hands."

"Fine then, _don't _trust me with Naruto's life," Kiba grumbled, though he wasn't too hurt at all. He knew his kunai lacked a shadow thread's fine accuracy anyway. He didn't even trust _himself _to save Naruto. He dispelled his kage bunshin. "Akamaru's retrieving Ino right now. We'll go fifty meters past the park, dispel the genjutsu, go back as a van, and pick Ino, Akamaru, and Sai up."

"How...?" they heard Naruto hiss softly.

"How what?" Sakura asked gently, pausing in her healing for a moment just to hear him speak. She held her ear close to his mouth. He whispered something in her ear. Sakura rolled here eyes, and resisted the urge to smack the boy upside the head (if she had done so, she would have probably ended up with a bloody hand and a body that would take even longer to heal).

Neji took his eyes off the road and turned his head towards the four in the back. "What did he say?" he asked Sakura.

"Eyes on the road!" she said immediately, pointing an accusing finger at Neji's face.

"But—"

"Byakugan or not, you keep your face forward!" she said. "I do not want people looking to the left and wondering why the driver of an _ambulance_ is driving without even looking at where he's going! And Kiba, get up there in case his Byakugan goes out on us. I don't want to explain to another officer why we have a blind driver and no license _again_. Plus, we're riding a stolen vehicle."

Neji sighed and stared straight forward as Kiba clambered into the passenger side of the car. "So what did Naruto say?" the Hyuuga asked them.

"Ugh, it was a stupid joke," she said, continuing to heal Naruto's skull.

"Don't swerve, please," Shikamaru said absently, focusing completely on Naruto's bloody chest.

"Right, right..." Neji muttered.

"Anyway, he pretty much said 'how about we just leave Sai behind?'" Sakura said, shaking her head. "Honestly, he shouldn't waste his energy speaking like that. Y'hear that, Naruto?! Don't talk!"

"Sakura," Kiba said, looking at them through the mirror with a weak smile. "He's unconscious again."

"Oh. Right... Anyway, I'm just worried that any excess movement while he's healing would screw up his anatomy or something..."

"Hey, hey, it's alright," Kiba said as Neji started passing under a tunnel. "And we can go back now."

Shikamaru and Sakura looked up. "Oh, yeah. _Kai!_"

They both released their illusions and the genjutsu disappeared. The ambulance became a normal van. Neji made a U-turn and began heading back to the hotel.

"But still, every time we use Naruto to fake our deaths, I feel like I'm going to have a _heart attack_," Sakura complained.

"Hey," Neji said, changing the topic. He didn't want her jinxing their luck or anything. "Since Naruto's unconscious and the henge is still working, I suppose that means that Sai reinforced it when he took Naruto's pulse?"

"Yeah," Kiba said. "Good thing he's so plain. No one ever remembers his face in a crowd..."

Later, they arrived on the scene to find Sai waiting for them, sitting on a bench next to Akamaru, with Ino sleeping peacefully on his shoulder like a couple who had decided to spend the evening watching the sunset.

"It took you long enough," Sai said, still smiling. Everyone glared at him as they opened the back doors for the three.

"Shut up."

* * *

Ino felt rather dizzy, not used to this new body. The peg leg put her off balance. The man was really in need of new measurements. This leg was much too short for him. And the eye... one was zoomed in on the body, and the other was perfectly normal. The double vision gave her a headache. 

She closed the real eye and watched her friends drive away in their 'ambulance'.

"..._Portus_," the man Ino knew to be Albus Dumbledore said. He had waved his wand over Ino's hair pin. _That's_ what they used to track them down? A simple hairpin?! "We'll return to our own rooms and meet with Horace. Tam, thank you for your help. We'll drop you off at the inn as well. After that, I will make another Portkey so that Horace, Alastor, and I will return to Hogwarts. And then you, Alastor, may Floo home."

"Er, right," Ino said tersely, keeping her words as brief as possible in hopes that no one would notice that 'Alastor' had gained a Japanese accent during the short time he had spent in Toyohashi.

Ino watched Tam grab a small corner of the pin and followed his example. With a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach, she suddenly found herself at a place near Tam's Teahouse.

Leaving Tam behind, Dumbledore used the _Portus_ spell again and they ended up at an area near Toyohashi that Ino realized to be the Urigo ruins. There, she met a huge, walrus-like man—presumably Horace.

Dumbledore gave the hairpin one last spell and they ended up at Hogwarts once again. Ino wavered slightly, feeling like she was going to be sick.

"Ah, I'm not sure if I'm up to the ride home," Ino/Alastor said hesitantly. It was true. Plus, she didn't know how the heck she was supposed to 'flu herself home'. That didn't make any sense logically or even grammatically!

"That's quite alright," Dumbledore said, giving her a knowing smile. She didn't like that twinkle in his eye. "I know how much you dislike Portkeys. Ah, Severus, Mr. Malfoy, hello."

Ino paused. Standing next to the dark looking man was their client himself.

"Dumbledore," Severus said, nodding slightly in respect to the old man. He looked at Ino with distaste written plainly on his features. Not that Ino blamed him. This Alastor fellow was fugly ((A/N: 'fucking ugly', for those who don't get it))! She stared into his dark eyes and felt a slight headache.

Severus immediately became very wary and pointed his wand at Ino. She froze.

"Dumbledore, this person is not Mad-Eye Moody," he said.

Uh oh... caught already, eh? She seemed to be having bad luck when it came to this.

"Mad-Eye Moody does not know Occlumency."

"Occlu-wha?" Ino instantly regretted these words and covered her mouth with her currently gnarled hands.

"Severus, please calm down," Dumbledore said. Ino chose that moment to transfer her mind into 'Severus's'.

Or, at least, she tried to.

It felt like running into a brick wall.

Already unbalanced on the peg leg and now dazed by this mental barrier, Ino stumbled and fell to the floor. Curse this damned man and his damned leg!

"Mad-Eye Moody," Severus said in a slow voice as he raised his wand, "is _not_ a Legilimens either..."

"Severus!" Dumbledore said sharply.

"Stupe—!"

"Don't—"

From the ground, Ino grabbed onto Malfoy's ankle and made a quick transfer.

"—fy!"

"—do that!"

And just as Alastor Mad-Eye Moody regained his consciousness, he lost it once again.

Ino/Malfoy kicked the now unconscious man's hand off her foot.

"Are you alright, Draco?" Severus asked Ino. She thought back to when she first met 'Draco', as a client, and struggled to remember his clipped, curt voice.

"I hardly am," she said, mimicking his tone of voice from memory. "That madman gave me quite a shock! But I'll live."

Severus seemed to be fooled by her voice. Thank the gods she was great at mimicking the accents she had seen when she was watching the foreign television. She was the group expert at making phony accents. Particularly the French, but the British were a close second.

Ino paused to think. It seemed that she was safe for now, but she had no radio on her, thus no way of contacting her companions. And even if she did have the radios, it probably would start malfunctioning again. Shikamaru mentioned something about how wizards usually used messenger birds, similar to shinobi.

Thinking about the Leaf, Ino forgot to suppress her frown.

"Is something wrong, Draco?" Severus asked.

"No," Ino said. "Nothing."

Severus looked rather annoyed at that. "Well then go. You were going to write a letter to your mother, were you not?"

"Oh, yeah," Ino said. "Right." She nodded curtly and left the room, shutting the door tight before running.

That incident with Alastor had been close!

Ino had no intention of writing to Draco Malfoy's mother, though she did intend on passing a message to Shikamaru and the others. An owl might have sounded like a painfully slow way to send mail, but since it seemed to be the only available way to receive and give messages, she'd have to make do with what she got.

Heading outside, she briefly glanced throughout the area. Students all around were either glaring at her or watching suspiciously.

Geez, what an unpopular guy! She expected someone who looked so pretty to be a bit more popular.

Anyway, she spotted a tower covered in bird poop and assumed correctly that it was where the wizards kept the birds.

Unlike back in Konoha, instead of the hawks they usually kept, this roost was full of owls of all kinds. Apparently, very well trained owls. One seemed to have immediately recognized Ino's current host and flew down to her.

The huge eagle owl landed on a post and looked at her regally with one foot raised in the air, as if waiting for her command.

"Oh, yeah..." she muttered under her breath, looking around for paper as a group of four Hogwarts students walked into the owl's keep. Ino found paper, a feather, and an ink bottle and, wishing dearly for a pen, began to write her message to Shikamaru.

_--Nara Shikamaru-- ((_A/N: --scratch out--)) _Logic  
At Hogwarts. Found Akui. Name: Draco Malfoy. In body right now. Will complete job once way back secure.  
Loves and kisses,  
Kokoro_

She folded the letter and paused, not sure how exactly to give it to the owl. Back in Konoha, the birds had a special holster for letters. The message written for the hawks was written on a scroll small enough for the hawk to carry without impeding its flight.

She watched the four people in the Owlery with her, waiting for them to send their message so she could find out how to tie it to the bird. While doing so, she caught small snippets of their conversation.

"...find it strange that nobody seems to remember the intruders," the bushy haired girl said.

"Not even me..." the second girl said.

"And then Dumbledore goes to the World Cup Preliminaries the very same week? Sounds suspicious to _me_!" a red haired boy said.

Ino suddenly recognized two of the four. The two redheads were the ones that they had caught on their mission here.

"Hey..." a black haired boy said. "Malfoy."

Ino, recognizing her host's name, looked at him straight in the eyes. "Yes?" she said.

They looked rather suspicious of her already. Did she screw up _already_?

"What are you listening in on us for?"

"I'm not listening in on you," she said.

"What are you doing?"

"...Writing a letter."

"Well obviously," the red haired girl said, glaring at him slightly. "To _who_?"

"My... mother," Ino said. They still looked at Draco with suspicious eyes.

"Why are you telling us this?"

"Because you asked?"

"Yeah! Why aren't you insulting us?"

"...Should I?" She paused. "You guys are all idiots. I'm surprised you didn't slip in the owl shit and crack your head open on the way up here."

They stared at Ino.

"Nothing about our family?"

Ino looked at the bushy-haired girl. "...Your _mom_!" They all seemed to fall over. Ino took a deep breath and exhaled sharply. "Okay," she said sharply. "I'm _just_ trying to write a _letter_ here, so leave me alone!"

"What's in the letter?" the dark-haired boy said immediately.

"_Nothing_," Ino said.

"Let me see it," the redhead boy said.

"No. Looking through letters is illegal," Ino said, glaring at them. "Go. Away."

"Let us see the letter first."

"No."

"Let us see it."

"No."

"Let us see it—"

"_IT'S JUST A FREAKING LETTER_!" Ino shrieked at the top of her lungs, the very image of a girl having a mood swing in the body of a boy. "_STOP FREAKING BOTHERING ME ABOUT IT! THERE'S NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT IT. LOOK, PAPER, PAPER!_" she waved it in their faces, knowing full well that they wouldn't be able to read the Japanese letters on there anyway. "_OOH, THAT'S _AMAZING_ ISN'T IT? YOU IDIOTS! I'M JUST TRYING TO WRITE A LETTER TO MY FRIEND AND GET DONE WITH IT SO GET OUT AND STOP BOTHERING ME AND...!_"

Somewhere in the middle of Ino's rant, the bushy-haired girl pulled her friends, and they all retreated from the owl roost.

Ino sighed. She took the envelope the four had dropped on the floor, took out their letter and stuck her own inside. She scratched out the 'Bill and soon-to-be Fleur Weasley! The Burrow'. So all these owls needed were a name and location, eh? She wrote 'Nara Shikamaru, Toyohashi, Japan' on it in Kanji.

"To Japan please," Ino said to the owl. The owl looked rather disgruntled at the thought of having to fly all the way to Japan, but it left away anyway. She watched the owl flap away into the horizon and then took a deep breath.

Now that she thought about it, her mission was going to end up being rather difficult. First, she'd have to find a person who deserved to take the fall for a murder. And then, she'd have to use their body to kill Draco Malfoy.

* * *

"Thank you, Harry," Dumbledore said to the group as Harry dropped a memory into the pensieve for him. "You have been a great deal of help recently." 

"You're welcome, sir," Harry said respectfully. "May I ask what's wrong with Malfoy?"

"I'm afraid I cannot answer that," he said, shaking his head sadly, "though I do have my suspicion that that person was not the Draco Malfoy we knew. Or, perhaps, not just him. In any case, you are dismissed. And it would be greatly appreciated if you did not mention this to anyone. For example, Professor Snape."

Harry was surprised. Not even a member of the Order? "Yes, sir," Harry said, leaving.

Dumbledore sighed once the door was closed. He reviewed his memory of his earlier adventure, as well as Harry's memory of Draco's strange reaction. He had asked Harry to follow Draco, in suspicion of a stowaway of sorts. And, it seemed that he was lucky enough to have found one.

Dozens of questions went through Dumbledore's mind, the most prevalent being, 'how did they come by this world?' And the most important being 'would they be willing to work under a client whom they had just attempted to murder?

They were young, but they capable being of formidable adversaries and valuable allies.

By now, he was completely aware that he had been fooled. They had been exposed to magic only a few brief moments, yet these ingenious young minds had managed to fool the Tracking spell with only little information to run on. They adapted almost immediately to their newest 'enemy' with a new 'weapon'. If they were just a little bit better and more 'informed' on the potential of magic... He could not mist this opportunity, for the sakes of the wizards, Muggles, and even this group as well.

But to make contact with this group, he would have to know of their current location. They had thrown off the Tracking charm, an extremely advanced form of magic. He was completely aware of that the moment the possible paths had split into two: the now ruined apartment at which the shinobi had once lived and the hotel that they had faked the girl's death.

The attempted murderers could be long gone by now, in another city or even, perhaps, another country. But Dumbledore was sure that one of them had managed to possess Moody and now Draco. He was completely unconcerned with this new person roaming around the school. The trespasser was for sure not one of Voldemort's underlings, as the Dark Lord seemed to have absolutely no connection with the Japanese, according to Severus. The trespasser also seemed to avoid fighting other students.

Thus, the person in Draco Malfoy did not seem to be much of a threat.

From the sparse information he had managed to collect over the past few days, Dumbledore was able to deduct that, though they were powerful as a group, each of them were lacking in some area. Or so, this was what Dumbledore was hoping. In any case, there was a slight possibility that this person was the very same girl who had controlled the minds of the students in the infirmary and made them fall asleep. It was a possibility.

In that case, taking the few talents that he had seen from them so far, Dumbledore was able to deduce a bit more information about this person, at least. 'She' seemed to have a gift when it came through affecting a person's minds. If there was any specialty she had, it would almost certainly be in the skills she most often used—infiltration and espionage. And Severus's attack on the spy—while damaging to his plans to corner her—was actually a bit helpful in picking apart this person's mind infiltrating technique.

It was somewhat similar to Legilimency, and the user had developed a natural form of Occlumency, presumably from the previously mentioned technique. This person had not been trained as an official Occlumens, but her natural barrier was extremely powerful for an inexperienced user. Severus had been too obvious in his use of Legilimency. If he had been as subtle with the technique as Dumbledore, he would have seen what the headmaster had seen.

And thinking back on Severus's lack of finesse, Dumbledore was glad that the professor had not found some of this information...

In any case, the similarities between the spy's technique and Legilimency linked that technique to the Imperius Curse as well. The technique actually seemed to be a mix of both spells.

Dumbledore smiled, waving his wand and summoning a pot of tea.

He had just the thing to prevent the spy from doing any damage at all.

Once finished with his preparations, Dumbledore moved on to look at Harry's memory of the encounter at the Owlery. He was quite pleased to find that the person inside Draco Malfoy's body had waved the letter out, probably confident that Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron would be unable to read the letter, which was written in a different language. And even if they could read it, it would be, after all, impossible for them to read something moving so quickly.

And the spy was right. None of those four knew any Japanese. And you couldn't just read something moving so quickly in real life. Dumbledore, on other hand, was rather fluent in the eastern language, and he was able to slow down all movement in the pensieve. Slow enough to read the name on the letter and make out the name that the stranger had originally scratched out on the parchment.

Dumbledore smiled, pulling his mind out of the pensieve.

'_Nara Shikamaru_,' he thought to himself, pulling out a piece of parchment and an auto-ink quill, '_I have a letter for you..._'

* * *

Naruto woke up a day after he had faked Ino's death with the headache the size of Japan itself. 

"Oh... crap..." he muttered, rolling over, feeling as if he needed to puke. Fortunately, he had nothing to eat for almost a day now and there was little left to be regurgitated, aside from a bit of acid.

"Careful," Kiba said in a low voice. "We all just spent a lot of our chakra reserves healing you..."

"Yeah..." Sakura said blearily. She wondered vaguely how on earth she of all people could have felt tired. She used none of her own energy and ended up having everyone else's energy running through her to Naruto.

How could she feel so exhausted, with all that chakra that had been running through her?

She glanced at everyone around her. Most who had ended up giving chakra back to Naruto were lounging around in the grass. Chakra depletion was just the worst. It was only mildly dangerous to a point. You might end up exhausted, but still able to crawl away and make an escape if need be, though it could end up deadly if one went on too long using chakra they did not have. But, in some cases, chakra depletion was even worse than death. The beginning symptoms of chakra depletion were not life-threatening, but... if a shinobi attempted to use draining techniques on their already dwindling reserves... then the shinobi would later experience some extremely unpleasant side effects...

Because a person suffering from chakra depletion gave the exact same symptoms as a person suffering from a hangover.

"Food," Sai called out, carrying large grocery bags and climbing into the van. It was a simple matter for them, casting genjutsu over the cashier so that they wouldn't have to pay a thing. "In addition to our... 'food notes', I got... dumplings, beef jerky, chips, chicken, and some shrimp." He tossed Kiba his jerky.

"Awesome," Kiba said, snatching the beef jerky. He tore open the back and split it between himself and Akamaru, chewing contently and practically purring. Or whatever it was that dogs do.

"Sai..." Sakura said slowly. "...Over half the stuff you've got, we've got to _cook_."

"And?"

"We don't have a stove."

"Oops, my mistake," Sai said idly. "Though I suppose if we were ninjas, this wouldn't be a problem now, would it?"

They were on the outskirts of town, camping outside. Sai and Shikamaru, being the only ones with enough energy to at least move, made a small fire and boiled water. He opened the backpack that held all equipment—weapons, cooking utensils, and all—and rummaged around inside the bags.

After flipping through several pages of summoning runes, he finally found some of the things he needed—pans, portable stoves, batteries, and other junk that he never would have even considered while in Konoha. He pulled out some of the 'snack books' and tossed some of the contents at the others.

"Sai..." Sakura said tiredly, though she easily caught the plastic bag in midair. "Not these... please not these..."

"What is it—?" Naruto said, sharply trying to sit up when he realized he just wasn't healed up enough to make any sudden movements. "Oh snap..." He leaned back down.

Whether it was because of the pain in his back or the fear of Sai's infamous snack, Naruto passed out.

Kiba and Akamaru whimpered in fear of...

_Sai's homemade onigiri_.

((A/N: Dun-dun-DUUUUN/stares around at the unresponsive audience/ What, you don't find that scary?))

Over the months in which each of them had to learn how to cook and follow schedules, everyone came to understand that Sai was the devil himself when it came to the kitchen. The rice balls of doom were actually often some of the best things that the shinobi had tasted in this world. Sai was, contrary to the sneaking suspicions, an excellent cook. But it just so happened that one out of every eight—now seven—rice balls would have an odd ingredient.

Caviar made from scraps...

Peanut butter...

'Domestic' escargot...

These were only _some_ of the many odd fillings that Sai would often hide amongst the ordinary onigiri. It was fairly disconcerting when a person is enjoying a snack, grab another one, and bite in, only to find that there is something in the center of the onigiri that was pretending to be a filling but didn't really belong in an onigiri at all.

Sai had mastered the art of sneaking in odd food to an Inuzuka and even sometimes a Hyuuga, occasionally tricking even the best 'scent tracker' and the 'all-seeing' shinobi into eating something that should not be eaten in a rice ball.

The others were, however, relieved to find out that Sai had been in a serious enough mood when packing their food and water that he didn't even bother taking the oddball rice balls.

Though everyone was exhausted, there was still an air of relief. They had escaped their greatest enemy yet. They were free. Homeless, but free.

Shikamaru stared at the clouds, feeling relaxed for the first time in ages. There was no need, for now, to worry about the future. There was no one to discover their identity. To find out that they weren't from anywhere in this world.

As he pulled out a cigarette, he was interrupted in mid-thought by what first appeared to be a huge red flying piece of fire. Jerking upright and about to berate Sai for not keeping the fire controlled, he realized that it was a huge bird, the size of a peacock but the color of red, orange, and yellow.

There was a note written on its leg, addressed to him. He stared suspiciously at the bird that seemed to appear out of nowhere. It stared right back with what seemed to be some sort of a 'what are you waiting for' look on its face.

Untying the string, Shikamaru cautiously opened the envelope and read its contents.

_Nara Shikamaru  
Toyohashi, Japan_

_The friend you sent to Hogwarts has just sent a letter to you by owl. Estimating the time, I'd have to say you'll receive that letter in a week. Nevertheless, I'm writing to you to let you know this: you have not yet escaped. You are all extremely intelligent, I am aware. I suggest that you do not pass up this wonderful opportunity to find your place in the world. If you go to the Toyohashi airport, you may find a single plane ticket reserved for any one of you._

_The plane is destined to go to London, England. Once there, find Charing Crossroad and enter the Leaky Cauldron. Choose your negotiator wisely. You will be speaking directly to me. _

_Of course, this is only if you will accept the free ticket. I suggest you write the date of our appointment and give it to Fawkes. I'm fine at any time of the day. I have much time on my hands. All I ask is that you arrange a meeting between us before the month of August is over. However, I hope you won't schedule the appointment _during_ that month. If you do, I have to wonder what you're so busy doing at this moment._

_Albus Dumbledore_

_PS: I suggest you not let this opportunity pass you up. This is the perfect opportunity to find your way home._

Shikamaru paused. They had gone through all that shit, and they were _still_ found?! He took a deep breath and massaged his temples. It seemed that the pain that Naruto had gone through had been completely pointless. After a moment, he took out a pen and wrote on the back of the letter.

_Albus Dumbledore  
Hogwarts_

_My companion will remain safe. If you harm her, I suggest you run fast and lay low, because we will not stop coming after you until you die. While I thank you for your measure of goodwill, I would rather preserve the little pride I have left and pay for my own ticket to England. Thank you for the offer, though. Our meeting will take place in over a week from now. I'm thinking June 2, 1997 at noon. And I am perfectly aware that you know just how 'busy' our schedule is, now that you wizards put us both out of our homes and out of our jobs. And I am sure you are aware that, as a result, we have nothing to occupy our times with._

_Nara Shikamaru_

After signing his name at the bottom of the note, Shikamaru folded the letter and tied it to the bird who he assumed was Fawkes.

"What is it?" Sakura asked Shikamaru sleepily.

"We've been found," he said. "While we had been able to dodge one method of tracking, it seems that they have another. They abandoned tracking us by the connection between Ino and her hairpin and adopted a new technique to locate us. One that only requires knowledge of our names. I was the only person named here in this letter, but I'm sure that Dumbledore will later go back to Tam and get the rest of our names."

"_WHAT_?" everyone shouted, jumping to their feet and most of them realizing this was a bad idea as they staggered to the side, nursing their hangovers.

But that's not what really hurt.

All the planning Shikamaru and Sakura had brainstormed prior to Naruto's fall and the pains they had gone through to escape being captured by wizards and government authorities—completely useless!

"Yes. I'm going to deal with it myself though. I'm meeting Albus Dumbledore in England," Shikamaru said. "Hopefully as a negotiator."

"You can't be serious..." Kiba said. Akamaru whined.

"I am. But I'm not going alone. I'll be leaving on July 30, and I'm not going alone."

"Which one of us going with you?" Neji said.

"All of you guys. Naruto should have healed by then, and we should at least have a decent amount of chakra recovered. We're all leaving for London. And a warning in advance: don't leave anything behind. I suspect that we won't be coming back."

* * *

**My Thinking Corner**

Muahahaha! Sorry for writing Dumbledore a bit funny, but I'm not making him evil or anything! And to those convinced I'm going to go having the shinobi Godmoding around, killing Voldemort, Dumbledore, Harry and Friends, Malfoy and Stooges, and everyone else in the Harry Potter book, I'm going to have to say what I said in my profile under 'Missions In Progress' and then 'Narutotachi Goes To Hogwarts'.

To tell you all the truth, I'm rather disappointed by how sharp you guys are. ...I actually can't believe that more than one of you guys jumped to conclusions and got it right, just like how I didn't plan for you guys to do... (cries) I guess this means I'll have to be a bit more subtle. A _challenge_. Nice.

Oh, and I was trying to brainstorm other possible names for this story, just in case the similar title to HarbringerLady's annoyed you guys. I don't think it's that big a deal, but having the exact same name as another person's story makes me feel unoriginal. (sobs) And then, just now, I came up with the brilliant name of 'Crossed Over'. ...And then I just realized that _that _title is similar to Crossfire, which was written by a FRIEND. Graaah! I had thought I was so clever too, haha. _...AND THIS IS NOT AN INSULT TO HARBRINGER LADY!  
And the response to Fast's post in the previous chapter was not an insult to Fast as well!_


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Exchange

Ino wandered around Hogwarts, unsure of what exactly to do. She had memorized the floor plans already, though it was quite difficult for her to do so with the constantly moving stairs and the doors that were really walls in disguise or wouldn't open unless you tickled it or something.

This place was crazy!

Luckily, though, she wouldn't be staying here too long, since it seemed to be the last day of the school year. Or perhaps it was unlucky.

She didn't know where she was supposed to go.

"Malfoy! Hey, Malfoy!"

Two large and bulky goon-like boys approached her.

"Yeah?" she said to them, unsure of whether these two huge and probably intimidating boys were friends or enemies, though they did _sound_ friendly by unfriendly standards.

"It's almost dinner. Aren't you coming?"

"Oh," she said, nodding. "Sure..."

The boys walked behind her. Ino, for a moment, was almost scared that she wouldn't remember where the Great Hall was, but she remembered that, according to the map, it was on the ground floor and was impossible to miss.

She walked into the Great Hall and glanced through the six hundred odd students warily out of instinct. Students were seated by the colors of their ties, it seemed.

She almost wished she had listened to Shikamaru's complete speech on the system of how students here functioned. Ino felt the slight stab of guilt at how unappreciative she sometimes was for Shikamaru. He and Sakura were constantly working on sorting information. They had pulled several all-nighters to translate the book that was over one thousand pages and managed to do so in fourteen days without decent rest, even though Sakura herself was often a stickler for proper health.

She seated herself at the end of the table, where she seemed to have the most room for her host's two friends. ...Jeez, if these two were all the friends he had, then this boy was just pathetic.

Ino thought through her mission. Maybe this wouldn't be as difficult as she thought it would be. Shikamaru said that he would have preferred that Ino killed Malfoy. It would be much easier for her friends if she did.

Of course, no one here seemed to be 'evil' enough for her to consider 'frame-able'.

Without anyone here to take the fall, she could always just as easily resort to her next option: to make Draco Malfoy ever forget that he had encountered Ino and her friends.

It wasn't mind-wiping exactly. She wasn't erasing his memories. She wasn't removing them. All Ino's unnamed technique did was "move" the memory to the back of his mind, where he was less likely to think about the event ever again. Sometimes, if she was efficient enough in removing all details of the memory, the person's mind would almost automatically confabulate it—creating a memory to fill in the blank.

Of course, there was always the risk that the repressed memory would resurface. Sometimes one might get struck in the head and remember the event. The 'possessee', as Ino put it, might be forced to remember it in a time of great stress and/or trauma. _Or_, he or she might just suddenly reach an epiphany.

Removing one's memory was just as risky as removing the problem itself—the witness.

The repression could always be reversed. A person who had his memory moved a second time was twice as likely to remember again, compared to when he had a memory moved only once. Mainly because she would then have to remove two memories: the original memory and the memory of remembering the memory. The more often she had to repress a memory, the more likely it was to resurface. 

But killing him outright would raise questions. There had been several risks in which Ino had been forced to kill the witness. It wouldn't be the first time if authorities had retraced the path of the victim all the way back to when the witness had first met them.

It had taken several memory translocations on different people and careful treading while they had been investigated. Times like these made Ino glad that all the shinobi trapped in this world with her were rather talented when it came to creating genjutsu. Most, anyway.

Okay, so Sakura was the only really skilled person when it came to making illusions, but that alone was enough, as well as Naruto and his kage bunshins.

In any case, for Ino to remove the memory, she had to be in Draco's body, but in a different 'mode'. First, she would have to quickly transfer her soul into another person's and just as quickly re-enter Draco's body in the form in which she could look through his mind. In other words, she would need to move quickly, flickering between bodies as quickly as possible to pull this trick off.

In her first form, she was able to control his movements and put the host's mind to 'sleep'.

In her second form, she was unable to control his motor skills, but she could look through his memories, modify them to an extent, and move them around in order from what he thought about on a daily basis to what he's rarely give a second thought to.

Of course, she was unable to do both at once. So then she'd probably have to enter the mind of one of his two friends once she was able to get one of them alone. And then, before he could react, she'd make her second entrance in her second mode.

Of course, if she didn't want to risk leaving this body and missing her next target's, she'd have to either be very careful in her second type of transfer or aim _very _carefully if her target was in motion.

Ino was able to travel through the air very slowly. That was how she used to travel when she was younger. However, when she was older, her father taught her how to travel almost instantaneously. All she had to do was focus a large amount of chakra in her skin (preferably in her hands) and then send her spirit out via skin contact.

The only downside of this was the large amount of chakra it took. However, since she was controlling his motor skills as well as the rest of his physical body, she was also able to access a small amount of Draco Malfoy's chakra as well. She hadn't expected a person to have so much. Civilians who were unaware of magic or chakra seemed to have a great deal less of it. This wizard had an almost equal amount of chakra as the average shinobi.

Either way, she'd have to work carefully here. After erasing the memory, she'd go back to her body, as that would be the only way out of one's mind while she was in that mode.

Gathering chakra in her hands, she casually reached out for the wrist of the large boy on her right when—

"A_hem_..."

Ino turned around slightly to see an old man standing behind her. Albus Dumbledore!

She felt her cheeks turn slightly red for several different reasons. Her skills as a kunoichi seemed to be rusting much more quickly than she had feared, being unable to detect the presence of an old man with a bad hip! A guess, of course, but old men tended to have them. Plus, seeing this man, she couldn't help but remember how close they had been to becoming murdering an important figure in a secret society of potentially powerful enemies.

"Hi?"

"Mr. Malfoy, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you," the supreme 'mugwump' said to her. "You may want to step into my office before you eat..."

"Um... okay," she said, getting up to follow him up a series of flights of stairs.

"_Fizzing whizbee_," Dumbledore said to his statue.

This must have been the very same place that Naruto had gone to kill Dumbledore, Ino mused as the gargoyle leaped to the side and the wall split into two to reveal a spiral stone staircase. She stepped on the first step but found herself put off balance when the floor moved swiftly beneath her feet like an escalator.

Ino and Dumbledore rode up on the staircase. Ino noticed the gargoyle entrance close behind them. Finally, the steps left them in front of a polished door with a brass knocker. Inside, Ino realized as Dumbledore opened his door, was a nice looking circular room. Ino noticed with some morbid amusement that there was an almost Naruto-shaped hole in the window. It wasn't a perfect shape, but it was obvious that a person had jumped through.

"Ah, I haven't had the chance to gather the pieces down below to fix it," Dumbledore said sadly, putting a hand on some sort of invisible force that covered the hole in the window. It probably kept drafts, wind, and rain out of the hole from entering his office.

The sun lit up the room. Ino could clearly see pictures of chatting portraits.

Odd.

"Have a seat," Dumbledore said, moving behind his polished desk as he waved his wand. Ino nodded and sat down in the cushiony chair that Dumbledore had provided for her.

"Something to eat, Mr. Malfoy?" he asked her.

"I thought you wanted to tell me before I had a bite to eat?" she responded.

"Well, I'll have you know that the pumpkin juice is laced with a Calming Draught," he admitted gravely. "I thought you might need it before I break the news to you... I know how you distrust potions, but I had Severus make it especially for you, so there's nothing to fear if it's poison that you wish to avoid."

Ino couldn't really see any way out of it, so she hesitantly took the goblet and sipped it.

"So what is it that you wanted to tell me, sir?" she asked him, feeling rather lightheaded.

"Lucius Malfoy has gone missing from Azkaban. And Narcissa has not been responding to any of the letters sent to her. And..." He paused, his previously gentle, twinkly blue eyes hardening slightly as their glances met. "I know who you really are."

Odd. She really should be concerned at this point.

"You are not a wizard, nor are you a Muggle. You are a trespasser in Draco Malfoy's mind. And, by the way, that was no Calming Draught. It was a delicate potion mixed especially for someone like you—a truth serum and a special sedate for the mind. Though I guess you could almost say that it's calming, in a rather twisted way. You cannot move, am I correct?"

Ino realized suddenly that she was not unconcerned. It wasn't a Calming Draught or anything. Therefore, she was not calm. She was thoroughly panicking. But she couldn't move either.

"The truth serum part of the potion should have you telling the truth for a few minutes, and you _will_ answer the questions that I ask of you."

No. Ino was trained against that. She knew what to expect in interrogation. Prepared for the worst or not, this was a nightmare come true.

"I know how mindbenders work," Dumbledore said. "_This_... is how you trap a Yamanaka."

...Shit! He knew her name!

"You are Yamanaka Ino," he said simply. "Tam told me."

...And he was reading her mind too!

"I am a Legilimens. I cannot read the mind as simply as I would a book, but your guess was right in the general direction. I understand what you're feeling and your basic thoughts and emotions and some flashes of your memory."

"The sedative I gave you is one for the mind. The body is completely mobile, but the person controlling it would be paralyzed. It was a potion that I myself had created recently in an attempt to reverse the effects of an Imperius. I've had help from St. Mungo's, of course. Herbert Chorley is almost showing signs of recovery.

"The Imperius Curse is a curse that controls the mind and body of another living being. A wizard casts a spell over another person. The person will be aware of what he or she does while the spell is cast, but usually only slightly so. By taking this potion, the positions are reversed. Sort of.

"The mind of the person controlling the second will become only slightly lax, but he or she will lose control of the body. In this case, you—the controller—are actually currently sharing bodies with Draco Malfoy—the controlled. Because of this, your mind is still present in his body but your control over it is slightly diminished. However, you are rather stubborn and will not relax and return Mr. Malfoy's body back to his control.

"But it doesn't matter. I have made contact with your friends. You will be used in my negotiation. I'm sorry, my dear, but the public is in danger. From what I have seen so far, you and your friends go all out for each other. All of your powers will be useful. I hope you will not hold a grudge."

-

**Eleven days after the 2nd wizard encounter and Ino's capture  
July 1, 1997  
Charing Crossroad**

Shikamaru watched the small, shabby-looking inn on Charing Cross Road, London. It was an ugly place, sandwiched between a large bookstore and a record store. Many people passed by the building every single day without even giving it a second glance. Others would walk inside and, according to Neji, they'd walk through some sort of chakra portal.

Aside from the apparent lack of a need for an ID, it was an ordinary pub and inn, as far as Shikamaru was concerned. A bit on the shady side, perhaps, but definitely not something.

"_Shikamaru_..." a tired voice said into the headphones. He could hear Sakura yawning over on the other end. "_How much longer?_"

"_Not long_," he said, feeling slightly regretful. They had been camping out for a little over a week, watching Muggles and wizards alike, studying their every move. Shikamaru was determined not to make any more mistakes. Two was already too many, and that was only this month. "_A little longer._"

"_You said that yesterday_," Naruto claimed, yawning. "_And the day before that. And the day before that..._"

"_We've all made an appearance around the Leaky Cauldron already. Not a single person gave us a second look._"

"_Yes they did_."

"_Well, not a look of suspicion anyway_," Kiba said, joining in on the conversation. "_Girls are _always _giving _me_ a second look_."

"_Mainly because they're wondering who taught this dog to stand on two legs_," Sai said.

"_Be quiet, nobody likes you_," the Inuzuka said jokingly. Or half-jokingly anyway. It was hard for a person to naturally like Sai, considering how abrasive his personality—if you could call it one—was.

"_Anything to report?_" Shikamaru said.

"_No_," Sai said.

"_Nope_," Naruto answered.

"_There's nothing_," Neji reported.

"_I see a whole pack of cute girls passing by and I am doing my best to restrain myself_," Kiba said.

"_Oh, well if you're having a lot of trouble, then I guess I'll help out a little_," Sakura said.

"_Wait, wait, it was a jok—Ow_!" they all heard Kiba yelp.

Shikamaru sighed.

It had been a long time since Ino had been captured. Or, they hoped she had been captured. There were worse things that could happen. It seemed their numbers were dwindling and, considering the few shinobi they had to spare, that was _not_ a good thing.

After their arrival on Charing Cross road, Shikamaru immediately set a perimeter around the area. Neji, Naruto, and Sai were posted around various areas near the Leaky Cauldron. Sakura and Kiba were fifty meters to the west, and Shikamaru was watching the Leaky Cauldron—like Neji, Naruto, and Sai—as he watched for any possible signs of a fight or an ambush.

He had also made a few daring moves, allowing each one of them at one point or another appear in public at various times, with and without their genjutsu. Each time, no one had shown any sign of recognition to the shinobi, aside from one point in which a stranger had remarked on how Sakura's hair reminded them of some nymph or something. Said person, according to Neji, carried a wand in his pocket. Probably a wizard.

Naruto, Sai, and Neji took turns taking shifts as they watched for suspicious movements and when Shikamaru could, he joined Sakura and Kiba, who were watching as well, but with Ino's body.

He frowned, looking at Naruto's group to the right and Sakura and Kiba to the left. They were all definitely getting tired. Tired shinobi made mistakes. He himself was also exhausted. And he knew this.

He also knew that the silence between them in the radios was also making them feel... self-conscious? Awkward? Distant? No, alone.

Shikamaru silently calculated the probable costs and the amount of cash that they had left. Hopefully, the workers at the Leaky Cauldron wouldn't overcharge them like their previous landlord.

"_I'm going in_," the genius announced, stretching out his legs and crossing the street as he headed towards the Leaky Cauldron.

"_You're going where_?" Naruto said sleepily.

"_The Leaky Cauldron. I'll look around inside. Reserve a room. And, ah... when I get there, I'll open a window. You guys can come in through that way._"

"_You're giving us a break?_" Naruto asked in surprise.

"_Might as well_," Shikamaru answered. "_Tomorrow is the meeting with Dumbledore. I'd rather us be a bit more alert than we are now_."

He received a chorus of 'I'm alert's and 'I'm not tired!' and sighed, continuing forward.

"Hey, kid," a bald and toothless man said. Shikamaru knew from previous observations that this man's name was Tom, the landlord of the Leaky Cauldron. "Renting out a room?"

"I'd like a room for three for about... three days," Shikamaru said.

"That'll be twenty-two galleons and three knuts," the old man said.

He froze. Twenty-two _whats_?

Nuts... ?

Garrions—wait, not garrion. Gal—

Wait.

_Oh_.

Shikamaru remembered their client had paid them in gold. What he had called 'galleons'. So it _wasn't_ some sort of ordinary English currency. These solid gold coins were wizard money.

Glad that he hadn't pawned off the gold, Shikamaru counted out large gold tokens he currently had in his pockets and found that he had more than enough. Tom handed him back his change. "That'll be Room Eleven. Enjoy your stay..."

"Thank you," Shikamaru said, leaving the bar and going upstairs.

Hm... he wasn't really in Japan anymore... Plus, they were in some wizarding dwelling... And this place was bad enough that they wouldn't check for ID anyways.

Shikamaru headed towards their room number, pulling out a pack of his cigarettes and inhaled deeply.

Fumbling slightly with the keys, he unlocked the door and found himself in a rather pleasant looking room, contrary to the pub down below and the very hallway he had just been walking in. Shikamaru opened the window, letting in the sunlight and several shinobi.

Kiba clutched his nose. "You start smoking the moment you get a chance to relax again?" he said in a nasally voice that he'd never use around the girls.

"Shikamaru, that's really bad for your health," Sakura chided, snatching the cigarette from his mouth and putting it out on the polished wood floor. Shikamaru just pulled another one out.

"Try not to waste it," he muttered, watching as the shinobi bickered about who stayed where.

"Sakura probably gets her own bed," Shikamaru said, interrupting them before the girl could beat them senseless for trespassing in her personal girl-space.

"Naruto, you room with Neji, since neither of you could ever manage to spend so much time with Sai without killing him. It's easier for me to deal with Sai anyway. I'll room with him."

"I want the bed," Sai said automatically.

"Of course. I don't want to share it with you," Shikamaru said without a blink.

"I know," the former member of the ANBU said. "You'd much rather sleep with Ino, am I right?"

"You are. I'd rather sleep with Kiba, in fact, rather than you."

"You _would_ want to sleep with Kiba."

"If Kiba heard you, he'd probably pee in the bed that you'd sleep in just to spite you."

"In that case, you can have it."

"_Inuzuka Kiba does not pee in beds_!" they heard Kiba announce from Sakura's room as he made himself comfortable on her couch.

Sighing again, Shikamaru drew in a deep breath of smoke and waited for the next day, where he would meet Dumbledore face-to-face for the first time.

-

"Anything fer either o' ya two?" Tom asked Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape as the old man took a seat in the corner.

"Nettle wine," Severus said.

"And red currant rum," Dumbledore answered. "Two of them, please."

"Expecting someone?" Tom said, nodding, knowingly. "Sad to see that you're still running out of teachers..."

"Of course we're expecting someone," Severus said. "I wouldn't be anywhere near here sitting idly if we weren't."

"Please pardon the sharpness of Severus's tongue. He's still the Defense Against Dark Arts professor at this moment," Dumbledore said as Tom hobbled away huffily. He turned back to Snape, who was sitting next to him"You know, Severus, I do wish you would stop antagonizing strangers," he said to him.

"You just don't want them spitting in our drinks."

"I'm not worried about that. I'm on good terms with Tom. It's _your_ drink he would spit in. Ah, there is our companion now..."

"Where?" Severus said immediately, scanning the crowd for any suspicious faces.

"There," Dumbledore said, nodding to a gangly looking wizard in Muggle clothing.

"...You aren't serious."

"I'm afraid I am," he said with mocking seriousness.

The wizard in question wore baggy dark cargo pants, a thin and loose green vest, and a gray T-shirt. He was vaguely familiar and had a lit Muggle cigarette in his mouth and pierced ears. The slight bags under his eyes were barely visible but not completely clear, and he had a ridiculously tiny Muggle contraption on his head.

Severus would have thought that Dumbledore was just pulling his leg. This person—the so-called 'assassin'—couldn't be any older than twenty!

But when the boy looked at Dumbledore and Severus, his eyes widened slightly in recognition. Not the usual 'Oh, look, it's the headmaster and the scary ex-potions professor for that world-renowned Hogwarts school'. It was the 'Oh shit, it's really them sitting here' look. Of course, this was rather strange. After all, the young man should have known that he was going to meet the headmaster. But then why...

Oh.

_It was HIM. _

"Calm down, Severus," Dumbledore said, the moment he realized that the professor was losing his temper.

"This was the 'man' who attacked me, Dumbledore," he said, recognizing him.

"I could have sworn that you had told me your attacker appeared to be in his mid-thirties," he replied amiably as the wizard approached their table.

"It's definitely him!"

"Now, now, calm down, I said. I told you before, I will not allow any violenc—"

A knife embedded itself deep in the table.

Dumbledore looked up to find himself staring into tired, angry eyes. Yup. This was definitely one of them.

"Where is my companion?" the person Dumbledore knew as 'Nara Shikamaru' said.

"Now, now, Mr. Nara, I was just telling my colleague that I would like to keep it peaceful in Tom's pub."

"You didn't mention you were going to bring someone," Shikamaru said.

"I'd say it would be fair foolish for someone to come to a negotiations with a possible enemy alone," Dumbledore said. "Mr. Malfoy—or I should say, _Ms. Yamanaka—_told me that you wouldn't come alone either."

"Well that means Yamanaka and you are _both _wrong," the boy said, lying almost flawlessly. "I am alone."

If it hadn't been for the fact that Dumbledore was an expert Legilimens, he probably would have believed these words. All that he required to delve into this man's mind was a brief moment of eye contact.

"I'm sure," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye. Shikamaru glanced at Tom as the landlord put down three drinks, one for each of them. "Rum?"

"I can't as you well know," Shikamaru said irritably. "I am underage."

Severus looked mildly surprised, but hid this just as well.

"Ah, you caught me," Dumbledore said. "I do know. I just thought you wouldn't care. After all, you're too young to smoke as well."

"This conversation is too casual," Shikamaru said changing the topic back to what he had been obsessing over for the past several days. "Where is Ino?"

"She's not safe, if that's what you're asking," the headmaster said.

This probably wasn't the best way to get the boy to settle down.

"_Where is she_?"

"You're not in a position to make demands," Dumbledore said.

Shikamaru scowled. "Fine," he said, rubbing an eye tiredly. He took the Muggle contraption off his head and turned it off, placing it on the table. "I have a feeling I know, but... what are _your_ demands then?"

"_Your service_," Dumbledore said, not bothering to dillydally any further. He spoke in Japanese this time. There was no need to give Severus any more information than he needed to have. "_For an entire year. You and your team will guard my school._"

"_No can do_," Shikamaru said immediately in the same language, much to Severus's annoyance.

"_And why is that?_"

"_If you have us guard your school, you'll need something to keep us in check. We've attacked the school once and you know that we probably won't give a second thought to doing it again if paid a certain price. Well, perhaps a second thought, but we'll have no third. Anyway, the only reason I'm here, as well as the only thing you have going for you, is the fact that you have our friend. So, to keep us under your hand, you'll have to keep her wherever she is now. Even if she's currently safe in your hands, we still have her body. _

"_Her mind and body are separate. We have our medic preserving and taking care of her body right now, but we only have so long until our medic becomes exhausted, and then Ino's body, without proper food and water for days, will almost immediately die. And then you will no longer have a hostage. And then we'll attack you_."

"_Well then_," Dumbledore mused, feeling rather pleased with these turn of events. He had been very fortunate to find the shinobi. The boy was just as quick as Ino had told him. "_I suppose you wouldn't like to switch hostages?_"

"_What do you mean?_" Shikamaru said quickly. He didn't like the idea of trading people. Lives weren't meant to be traded. They were much too valuable to give up at a time like this, and losing one person could seriously hamper their way of living, as well as losing the already deteriorating 'team morale' that they had.

"_I wouldn't be separating anyone from their body or holding them like I would Ino_," Dumbledore assured him. "_But there is another way to keep you in your place, at least. And since you seem to be the leader, I believe this may be the best choice for our side yet. I am completely aware that keeping Ms. Yamanaka too long may result in her death. I have a much better way. We can switch her for a different hostage. You may have Ms. Yamanaka back. However, she'll have to be replaced with someone else..._"

-

"Ugh, why can't we go with him?" Naruto complained to no one.

"Quit your complaining!" Kiba said from the living room, where he was currently staying.

Naruto rolled his eyes and found himself unsure of what to do. Sai was asleep, thank the gods. Shikamaru had said that he was going to put up with Sai, but Naruto denied this piece of relief. He was one of the few able to put up with him without trying to kill him.

Everyone was tired and irritable. Neji was asleep in his own room as well. Sakura was frequently borrowing chakra so she could 'refuel' Ino. Kiba was in Naruto's 'living room' just lying around with Akamaru, both tired.

Naruto glanced at himself in the mirror and leaned in closely to look at the whiskers on his face in curiosity as he often did. No signs of growth in his whiskers, no fading seal, and no sudden bursts of chakra (aside from the incident a week and a half ago in which he tapped into the Kyubi's chakra again to heal his body after he fell and faked Ino's death.

Things were looking rather peaceful again. All Shikamaru had to do was convince the very person he tried to kill to—

"_Ooh la la, you look positively delicious_," a voice said in English.

Naruto stared at the mirror, too shocked to say anything.

-

Kiba jerked out of his stupor when he heard Naruto screaming bloody murder. The Inuzuka immediately got to his feet for Naruto's room when the door opened, slamming Kiba to the side, as a blond blur came zooming past him.

"Wait a minute!" Kiba said, grabbing onto Naruto's sleeve, causing the blond to go in a circle. "What happened?"

"The mirror!" Naruto said, thoroughly freaking out. "The mirror is hitting on me!"

Kiba sighed. If Naruto was choosing now as the time to go through the "there's a summon hiding under my bed" phase _now_ of all ages, he was going to _literally _chew his friend out. Of course, the blond could have just been tired, achy, and hallucinating. Heck, Kiba wouldn't be surprised if Naruto was delusional or something. They've all been dead tired lately.

"Come on," Kiba said, pulling Naruto into the room after him. "Look! The mirror. It's not—"

"_Hey there, big boy..._" a woman's voice said, coming from the mirror. "_I see you're back. Ooh, and with friends too. Me likes._"

Kiba and Naruto ran out into the hallway screaming at the tops of their lungs.

-

Shikamaru was walking up the stairs, hands in pockets, deep in thought. There was no taking back his decision. Maybe it was the right thing to do. Not the smart thing, but—how would Naruto put it? Oh, he 'followed his instincts.' Wait, that was more of an Inuzuka thing—

_Well_. Speak of the devil. Shikamaru was knocked down the stairs by the two people he had just been thinking about.

"Shikamaru!" Naruto cried, jumping up to his feet and helping his two friends up. "The things in the room are haunted! I think the mirror wants to molest me in my sleep or something!"

"If you're talking about the enchantments," Shikamaru said, "that's just for the lonely wizards who travel alone and have nothing to do but talk to objects meant to stay inanimate."

Naruto shuddered. "...Oh hey! You're back!"

"Am I?" he asked with a tinge of sarcasm. "Didn't notice."

Okay, not quite a _tinge_, but the sarcasm was definitely there. Kiba and Naruto looked at Shikamaru strangely.

"One of the people I met with was a really sarcastic bastard," Shikamaru mumbled, managing to look rather sheepish at his uncharacteristic response. "He must've rubbed off on me."

"Speaking of which, how'd that go?" Kiba asked as they headed back to their rooms.

"Fine," Shikamaru said vaguely. "It could've gone better, but it definitely could've been worse."

He held up a sack of gold.

"Hey, wasn't our gold up in your room?" Kiba asked.

"This is our gold now too. I've got us a new job."

"Awesome," Naruto said. "What do we gotta do?"

"What kind of job? A lift? A hit? Something somewhere in between?"

"Neither," Shikamaru said. "I'll explain to you once everyone's here. Go to the back of the pub. I'll meet you guys there. Bring all our things."

Naruto and Kiba nodded. As usual, this was business. They rounded up their friends, waking them up, and having them all leave their rooms quietly.

They met Shikamaru downstairs in front of a grubby bare brick wall.

"Are we going to the place behind there?" Neji asked.

"You can see it?" Shikamaru replied.

"Vaguely. I see a normal empty alleyway and some alleyway full of people. Both at the same time."

"It's got something to do with dimensions, actually. You _are_ seeing two things at the same time," Shikamaru said, nodding. He tapped a handful of bricks and opened up a wall, leading them into a rather busy street corner with a large amount of merchants and sellers. "But before we go, you did lock our doors, right?" he asked the others, who nodded.

"And booby-trapped them too," Kiba said with a grin.

"Good. I don't want anyone messing with Ino's body or anything. I'm sure she'd be rather annoyed if we let her body get kidnapped," he said.

"So what's the job?" Sakura asked Shikamaru.

"We're going to do the opposite of what we were going to do before," Shikamaru said.

"A rescue mission? We're... rescuing a pretty young girl?" Kiba asked eagerly.

Everyone stared at him.

"_No_, we're guarding the school that we infiltrated before," he said as they walked past various wizards and shops. It didn't seem so crowded as before. People looked rather wary of one another and spoke in low voices.

"And what does that have to do with shopping?" Sakura asked.

"Our new job requires for some of us to maintain frequent contact with these magical beings," Shikamaru said. "There's a dangerous wizard on the loose recently. His name is Voldemort and, apparently, he has a decent amount of followers. About fifty years ago, they were known as the Knights of Walpurgis. The Knights were originally known as a group that supported a pureblood status. Now, they are known as the Death Eaters, who terrorize 'Muggle-borns'—people with magic even though their parents were not. I'm sure we could all handle ourselves well enough in a fight against wizards, but the fact remains that we're sorely outnumbered if the masses rise against us. The more we know or seem to know about magic, the better off we are."

"Oh, so we're just keeping the fact that we're nonmagical a secret so we don't make too many enemies," Sakura said, waiting for a confirmation.

"Close. You're right about the fact that we don't want to make enemies. But not about the fact that we're nonmagical. I read Hogwarts, a History a little bit more closely and found that Hogwarts is warded heavily against intruders. One of the wards is an 'Anti-Muggle' security system. The castle is bewitched so that if a Muggle looks at it, all they see is a molding old ruin with a sign over the entrance saying 'Danger: do not enter, unsafe.' Those who attempt to enter the castle regardless of the danger signs need to go through another ward. Once in the ward, they feel the sudden urge to leave. At a certain distance, they realize that they had forgotten something and need to go back home. The further into the ward, the stronger the urge to leave gets.

"Now, when we went inside the Vanishing Cabinet and into the Room of Requirement, we were _far past_ the wards, but we felt nothing. No abnormal urge to go back to where we came from. We are, technically, wizards. Untrained wizards, perhaps, but magic-capable nevertheless. And when you think about it, wizards and shinobi both have chakra. They use it in different ways, but they still both have the same source of energy, I think."

"I think I get it," Naruto said. "So what are we doing? Right now, I mean."

"First, we'll get the correct clothing," Shikamaru said, pulling out a piece of parchment that had a list of clothing. "I've gotten our pay in advance, so money shouldn't be a big deal. Some of us are going to be needing specific clothing."

"I'm not going to complain about _that_," Sakura said happy for an excuse to find new clothing, "but why exactly?"

"If you haven't noticed, there's a difference between the Muggles—normal people—and the wizards. One of the main differences, aside from the obvious lack of magical skills in one, is their clothing," Shikamaru said. "Robes are almost mandatory if we're going to be trying to fit in. We'll first stop at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, since it's closest."

Madam Malkin was a squat witch with a cheerful looking demeanor, despite the dreary feeling outside.

Naruto wasn't sure he liked the idea of being measured. None of the shinobi were used to close contact with another person outside of a fight. Of course, he was even less comfortable when he realized that the measuring tape was actually moving by itself.

"Three sets of school robes for a year and two casual robes," Naruto said, forgetting about Ino.

"No, three sets of robes for casual and semi-formal wear, and three sets for teachers. Hogwarts attire," Shikamaru corrected.

"Oh, that's right... What are _you_ again?"

"I'm not a teacher, but it's all the same anyway," he said, dismissing the question.

It didn't take long for each of them to be fitted with enough proper robes to last them the school year. Shikamaru shifted slightly to pull money out of his pocket.

"This should be enough," Shikamaru said.

"That's _more_ than enough," Madam Malkin said.

Shikamaru shrugged and left.

"Anyone think he's acting a bit weird?" Naruto said, glancing warily at Kiba, who looked dumbfounded. Kiba was a natural miserly moneyhog who rarely spent more than he needed to, and Shikamaru had taken after the Inuzuka's habits to save money. Giving away more money than they needed to was _unheard of_. Either Shikamaru was really cheerful at the moment or he had gone crazy. And considering just how happy Shikamaru looked all the time, the latter seemed to be more likely.

Exchanging nervous glances, they moved on.

"We all need our supplies. Namely books. We need information on basic wizarding lifestyles, traits, characteristics, etcetera," he said, handing them each a list of items.

"What's this?"

"It's a list of the things you're going to buy. Neji, Kiba, you'll get potion supplies from the Apothecary. Naruto and Sai, you're getting these lists of stationary supplies, and I _don't_ want you guys making a scene, got it?"

They nodded.

"Sakura, you can come with me. Let's try and finish in an hour. In front of this... I think it's some closed ice cream parlor. Anyway, we'll meet up here when we're all done. You all have more than enough money to buy whatever we _need_. No drawing unnecessary attention to ourselves, no stealing, no shopping splurges, no fighting—"

"We get it," everyone said quickly before Shikamaru bored them to death with orders. Without another word, they all dispersed into the crowds.

-

Naruto looked into the building at the various pieces of parchments, feeling rather bored at the moment. He fiddled with small 'lunascopes' and glanced at the people around him. Sai on the other hand seemed to be having the time of his life, looking at quills, inkbrushes, ink bottles that automatically refilled themselves, ink bottles that came in several colors, and ink bottles that held an insanely huge amount of ink, despite it's tiny bottle and appearance.

"Naruto," Sai said.

"What is it?"

"I think I hate quills."

...What?

Naruto looked up and face-vaulted when he saw Sai and several small versions of his picture beasts.

Naruto, though he had never admitted it before, had always been impressed by Sai's ink techniques. The things he drew were fabulous and extremely convenient, often helping the group out in sticky situations. He was able to draw at amazing speeds with the precise use of his chakra—which he often used to refine his marks—and he had the skills of a master artist.

His drawing with the quill, however, were spiky and utterly horrifying stick figures.

"What the heck?" Before anyone could see and question the 3D stick figures, Naruto slapped a notebook on top of them, squashing the ink drawings out of existence. He lifted the notebook slightly to find that the bottom was covered in ink.

"Why did you draw that?" he asked, turning back up to look at Sai.

"I was testing out the quill before I bought it," Sai said, shrugging as he put away the quill. Better stick with brushes. He pulled out several ink bottles. "I want these."

Naruto sighed, taking the bottles for Sai and sticking them in his bag with the many bundles of parchments, inks, and quills. "What's the difference?" he asked. "It's just a quill."

"You can't say that," Sai said blankly. "An artist must always use the best of instruments."

Naruto sighed. Maybe it wasn't just that he loathed Sai. Maybe it was the artist's picky-ness that he had hated.

"Of course, I can't expect someone as low class as you to understand an artist's logic," Sai said with a casual shrug. "You dickless wonder."

_Nope_, Naruto thought as he slammed the shopping bag at Sai's head. _It was Sai. Definitely Sai._

Despite shopping with Sai, Naruto's day proved to be quite a productive day. After he found himself cleaning out the hottest prankstore in the alley, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes._  
_

-

"Ugh," Kiba muttered, covering his nose at the sight of the Apothecary. It was located at the street corner, next to a 'Knockturn Alley'. "This place _stinks_." He backed away from the building warily. "Um, I'm just... Akamaru and I are just going to, uh, stay away from this place. We can smell it a mile away... We just need four cauldrons, right? All pewter? Akamaru and I'll just grab some of those. You can get all of the, ugh... ingredients. Potion stuff."

Neji didn't turn his head, but he watched Kiba and Akamaru run the hell away from the area gagging and holding in possible vomit.

Sighing, he walked into the building. There was an assortment of different types of odd items he was supposed to get. A lot of them. There were four kinds of beetle legs, newt eyes, an assortment of roots, and so on and so forth.

It took a while to find each of them, as this apothecary was poorly managed, watched by a new and inexperienced clerk whose boss was on break somewhere out in Diagon Alley.

"_Hurry it up please_," Neji said impatiently, glaring down at the poor man,

"Yes, sir, sorry sir," the man said, gathering the many ingredients for him. Moments later, Neji had his arms full of creepy crawly pieces of creatures and roots. It was disgusting. No wonder Kiba shied away from the task. The Inuzuka's sensitive nose could have picked this up from miles away.

Neji glanced around at the entire area around him and frowned. Some Asian kid was getting the stuffing beaten out of him by other kids. These wizards... Feeling a bit sympathetic for the boy, Neji made a turn down Knockturn Alley, bags in hand, and saw the kids brawling.

"Stop that," he said, easily knocking them off one particularly scrawny looking kid. He glared at them until they ran off. Shaking his head at 'the youth of today', he looked down at the boy and...

"You're a _girl_."

"You didn't notice?" the girl asked him skeptically, picking her glasses up off the ground and dusting them off before putting them back on her face. They were slightly uneven and cracked. It looked funny.

"I didn't look," he said dismissively.

"...You're a _guy._"

"_What_?"

"You sound like a guy!" the girl said, grabbing his hair.

"Get off of me," he said, putting down his bags to pull his hair free of the girl's iron clasp grip on his precious hair. "Let go, you stupid little girl."

"Too-tall he-she."

"Bratty midget."

"Weird old guy."

"I'm not old!"

"I'm not a brat! I'm thirteen!"

"Yeah? Well I'm nineteen now. You're a brat! And a midget! Thus a bratty midget." Neji was about to leave when his eyesight dimmed slightly. Standing completely still, he waited for the results. Would his eyes go completely blank on him or would they recover and go back to normal? He could practically feel the girl staring at his back. "So," he said, standing completely still. "Uh, why were they beating you up?"

"Because I kicked their friend in the groin," she said simply.

"Why would you do _that_?"

"They were making fun of my brother because he can't do magic. One side of our family is really old, but the other is a Muggle family. So he's technically not a squib. And he can do magic," she said. "Just not very well."

"Oh."

Awkward silence.

"Are you stuck in that position or something?"

"No."

"Oh."

Ah, and there went his eyesight.

Either that, or someone hid the sun because he couldn't see.

Curses.

Neji heard the sound of scuffling feet, a muttered voice, and a yelp.

"Kyah!" the girl said. There was a 'thump' as she fell on the ground. Attackers? Was it those Death Eaters Shikamaru had mentioned?

Turning around, Neji thrust his palm out and send an invisible wave of chakra in the general direction of the enemy. He heard a few cracks (possibly pieces of a nearby building) and a lot of yelling.

Oh.

They were just kids.

...Oops.

Looks like he got a bit too involved with this girl and her enemies.

A group of young wizards—guessing that he was 'on her side'—grabbed at his arms.

Annoyed, Neji rolled his pale eyes and proceeded to flipping them behind his head. He couldn't see, but that didn't mean he couldn't fight. Shikamaru wanted to avoid making a scene, so he'd just have to beat them quickly without magic and leave before he attracted too much attention.

Of course, just because he could fight without seeing for a short while did not mean he was great at it. Perhaps if he was able to use his impenetrable shield, he'd be able to do something about it, but the bright blue light would definitely draw more people over.

Someone grabbed his hair. Now, quite a bit more than annoyed, he sent this person into the wall in a lightning fast blow to the chest. Being unable to see, he'd have to rely on the fact that almost everyone here was fighting with their fists. Of course, this also meant that half the time he'd have to let someone hit him, and Neji didn't really like that.

Nevertheless, Neji fought carefully against _that girl's_ enemies. He suddenly smelled a sweet lilac scent. His unseeing eyes widened and...

...he stumbled over some inanimate object on the ground.

Ah crapness.

Neji was about to get rid back up to avoid getting kicked in the face or something, but his instincts accurately protested against this when he ducked again as some sort of flying metal projectile flew over his head and hit someone square in the stomach.

"HAH!" he heard someone shout. Possibly his age. A young woman too. "Got it! You guys, I've got a wand and I'm old enough to use it, so go away before I hex you into oblivion!"

This person even sounded like her. Neji felt some sort of energy flying past him and heard the others shout and run away.

"Are you okay...?" the new arrival asked him.

"Tenten?" he said almost hopefully.

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry," he mumbled, getting up to his feet. As annoying as the earlier fight had been, there was no sign that he had even been involved in it. He was rather glad that shinobi seemed to be a bit more physically resilient than the wizards. "I mistook you for someone else."

"Oh," the girl said. "Well, so you don't mistake me for someone else, I'm _Cho Chang_. This is my cousin, Surae Li. You helped her out, right? Our school of magic is Hogwarts. Actually, I didn't graduate, but I don't think my parents want me doing anything strenuous for a long while. I don't remember too many spells anyway."

She talked too much.

"Oh. Well, I'm Hyuga Neji. Self-taught."

"Wow," Cho said, her voice full of awe. "You must be some sort of genius then."

"I have been as a prodigy on several occasions," he said, remembering with a faint feeling of pride the amazement and respect everyone had for him back in academy school years ago. Neji breathed in again. So she was the lilac smell that had distracted him in the first place.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked. "The veins in your head are just going _crazy_."

"I'm _fine_," Neji said abruptly, rudeness etched into every syllable of his words. "But..." He paused. There was no need to get upset. Though he was getting just annoyed at the girl's mere presence. "But get the hell away from me."

"..._Excuse_ me?" Cho said with disbelief, probably surprised by the sudden change in moods.

"I don't want you anywhere near me," he said. She seemed to stand there, astonished by his rude manners. He glared in her general direction. "Go. Away."

"Oh, well _that's_ gratitude for you," she scoffed indignantly "Let's go, Su..."

"But my cauldron..." the younger cousin said.

"I dented it on the other guy anyway. I'll buy you a new one," she said huffily. Neji didn't turn his head to watch the two girls leave. He couldn't see anyway. And he didn't want to.

He wasn't sure how long he stood there until he heard a familiar Inuzuka's voice.

"Neji?" Kiba said, looking puzzled. "What are you doing here, meeting a girl?"

"Actually, I did," Neji said. "Two of them."

Kiba smirked. "Come on... you're looking a bit crazy. Anyway, it's time for us to go and find the others."

"Right," Neji said, feeling around slightly on the ground to pick up any fallen objects. Kiba, finally realizing that the Hyuuga was currently unable to see again, silently picked up several himself and helped Neji take the bags as they left.

Neji didn't mind that he had to depend on the dog and Akamaru to lead him around. He'd rather not see now anyway.

'Cho Chang' had sounded and even smelled like Tenten did. He felt rather pathetic, actually, that he was still upset by Tenten's 'disappearance'. He had not even seen the girl's face. He couldn't see what she looked like. Maybe she looked like Tenten as well. Or maybe she looked nothing like her.

Neji didn't want to know what this girl looked like. He didn't like the idea of there being a girl out in this world who was exactly like Tenten. But he didn't like the idea that Tenten was completely gone forever either.

-

**My Thinking Corner**

No offense, but I hope that last part was a big enough hint for some of you guys. Hinata is not in this story people. ...Well, I guess technically, Tenten isn't really here now either... But for everyone who doesn't get it, it's **Tenten**. Sorry! I guess I should have emphasized it a bit more instead of putting 'she' all the time. (shrugs sheepishly)

Gah! Finished my thinking corner and responses just in time. I'm about to go out to dinner. Ciao, people!


	8. Chapter 7

bChapter 07: Moving On

The shinobi met up again in front of an empty ice cream parlor, where Shikamaru had them all sit at a table to look at the books he and Sakura had gotten.

"_Sokuseijumon_ (1) is a spell book translated from English to Japanese, made to help Japanese wizards learn western magic. It's like 'Learning Magic For Dummies'," Shikamaru said, pulling out two versions of the same book. "Here's the English version, just in case we need to brush up slightly on our English as well. 'Kwikspell'. Highly well known for the magic-impaired. Hopefully, we'll know enough to cast believable spells by the time the school year starts—which, by the way, is when our mission officially starts."

"Wait," Kiba said, "so all we're going to be doing from here all the way to... to whenever school starts—"

"September first," Shikamaru supplied.

"So from here all the way to September first, we're only going to be _studying_?" he asked in disbelief.

"Not quite. I'll explain our separate summer tasks later. Right now, we need to go to—"

"Oh, oh, oh!" Naruto said, jumping up and down, spotting a store for magical pets. "Look! Before we go, I want to look around in there!"

"I don't think we have time for that," Shikamaru said.

"Oh come on, we have three months to learn the stuff," Sakura said. "That's plenty of time."

"Plus, now that we have money, I can get Akamaru some _real_ food," Kiba said, petting Akamaru, who barked happily.

Shikamaru sighed. "Well... fine. But after this, we go back according to schedule."

"Yeah, the schedule that none of us aside from you know so far," Sai said, though his comment went ignored.

For once, the borderline revolting odor didn't seem to bother Kiba at all. The place was brightly lit in some areas of the shop, but in others, it was dark and dreary—probably for the nocturnal creatures.

Naruto watched some rats skip around in a cage when a flash of orange caught his eye. A fox! How cool!

"Shikamaru, Shikamaru! I want it!" he said, pointing through the glass at the sleeping fox.

-

"You suck!" Naruto grumbled as the group walked out of the pet store with a large cage in hand. A bird cage that held seven small sparrows that had come at a discount.

((A/N: Oh come on, a fox for Naruto is totally cliché. ...Plus, I already used that idea in my other story! XD))

"If I gave you a fox, you'd probably end up like Kiba. Obsessed and scruffy," Shikamaru said. "Still, I was planning on getting these anyway."

"_Sparrows_? For what?" Naruto asked.

"Owls are messenger birds used for long distance. We'll be needing a convenient way to communicate at Hogwarts if needed, but we don't need to carry around seven owls and have them flying all around inside the school. Plus, they're cheaper and less conspicuous."

"Why do we have to be inconspicuous?" Sakura asked. "We're not acting as spies right now."

Shikamaru glanced at the others. "We'll talk about that later," he said. "For now, we need to go back to the Leaky Cauldron, get Ino's body, and meet up in front of the fireplace, alright?" he said, tossing aside his cigarette.

"Fine," the medic said, sighing. Now that they were having a better opportunity to stretch their legs out and move around more outside, Shikamaru had started smoking. _Again_! As a medic, she despised this habit, but she suspected that there was a personal reason to everything he did nowadays.

The shinobi waited in front of the fireplace as Shikamaru went upstairs. Neji sat down.

"Are your eyes acting up again?" Sakura asked him.

"They were a little while ago," Neji admitted. "But they're fine now."

"Alright. Shikamaru is getting Ino, right?" she asked.

"Yes," he said, nodding.

"And not paying attention to us downstairs or anything, right?"

"Right..." Neji said suspiciously.

"Alright, well I think Shikamaru's up to something," she said decisively.

"What do you mean by that?" Kiba asked.

"He's hiding something from us. He made a deal with Dumbledore, I know that. But he's only told us our job. None of the finer details," she explained. "Shikamaru's a smart guy, alright. But I have a feeling he's doing something incredibly st—"

"He's coming down," Neji and Kiba said at the same time.

Shikamaru carefully descended the stairs with Ino 'walking' alongside him, subtly matching him step for step. If any wizard noticed them walking suspiciously congruently, none of them made any comment. Shikamaru stopped by the group and nodded. Kiba and Sakura held Ino up by the arms as Shikamaru released her from his shadow and went back to Tom, who was sitting behind the bar.

"We're leaving now," he said to the landlord.

"Already?" Tom said, mildly surprised. "You paid for an extra day."

"Well, it was my mistake," Shikamaru said as Tom fished out a few extra coins in exchange. "Sorry about that. You can keep the money if you want. We're in a bit of a hurry anyway."

"S'alright," Tom said, handing Shikamaru the money. "Kids these days need all the money and help they can get anyway." He grinned as kindly to Shikamaru as he possibly could. Shikamaru, in turn, suppressed the urge to wince at the sight of the toothless grin.

"Uh, thanks," he said, leaving the landlord.

"Hey," Naruto said, as Shikamaru approached him and the others.

"We're about to leave now," Shikamaru said to them.

"What, are we taking a _plane _somewhere?" Sai asked, unsure of the schedule they were on. Considering the monotonous tone in his voice, it was hard to tell whether he was being sarcastic or something.

"No. We're taking something called a 'Floo', apparently," he replied, pulling out a large leather satchel. "Dumbledore gave me some. First, we will go to a wand store in Bulgaria. Then we will be splitting up into separate groups. To 'Floo' to a certain destination, you have to toss some of this powder into the fire, speak in a clear voice, and shout your destination. It goes like this..."

They all watched, interested, as Shikamaru pulled out a fistful of green powder and threw it into the fire.

"_Gregorovitch's Wand Shop_!" he shouted into the fire, which immediately became a bright neon green color. Shikamaru stepped back as Naruto moved forward to inspect the green fire.

"Cool," Naruto said, looking at the bright green embers. "Now what?"

"You walk through it," Shikamaru said.

"WHAT?"

-

Viktor Krum was visiting his 'uncle', Eskariot Gregorovitch the day that he also met the oddest group ever. Gregorovitch wasn't really his uncle. It was more like his uncle's nephew's cousin's lover's (and soon-to-be wife's) friend, Eskariot. Which, for short, was made into an acronym for the English word 'uncle'.

Therefore Eskariot Gregorovitch, who really had no relationship to Viktor Krum at all, was now his UNCLE. Or UNCLEskariot, as the man liked to joke in English. He wasn't much of a joker, obviously.

In any case, it seemed to be an ordinary day. Viktor was actually taking a nice walk under the disguise of a rather suspicious looking tourist (due to the fangirls, he was now forced to wear a scarf, hat, and face mask over his face to prevent recognition; though sometimes a member of the Bulgarian Magical Enforcers would pull him aside, force him to unmask himself, be really surprised, and ask for an autograph). This day, he decided to have his wand reinspected. He'd hate for his wand to short circuit or anything with the Knights of Walpurgis, also known as Death Eaters, running amok.

As a pureblood, he was not a huge target for Death Eaters. But with his fame and rather widespread influence over others, he wasn't completely inconspicuous. Plus, with Rita Skeeter's article in the English Witch Weekly magazine, it was relatively well-known that he was not a pureblood elitist.

In any case, Viktor had planned to visit Eskariot, get his wand checked, and leave when he received a mild surprise.

Eskariot had told him he would have to wait.

This was a rare occurrence for the world-renowned Bulgarian seeker, but not an entirely unpleasant one.

Apparently, Albus Dumbledore had Apparated just moments before Viktor's arrival to tell Eskariot that he was going to have several important guests Flooing in for wands.

Viktor looked at the fireplace, which had suddenly become the brilliant green shade of 'Floo'. He and Eskariot waited for the arrivals.

And waited.

And waited...

"_Shouldn't they be arriving about no—?_" Viktor asked in Bulgarian when, as if on cue, someone stumbled out in a less than graceful manner.

It was a young man, probably a few years younger than Viktor himself, with messy blond hair, tattooed whiskers on his cheeks, and a very flustered face. The blond stumbled out of the fireplace and fell face-flat on the floor. He immediately scrambled up to his feet and spun around, looking at the now bright yellow fire in wonder.

Thinking about it later, it almost seemed as if someone had forcibly thrown him into the fire.

Viktor stepped forward to greet the new arrival when the blond spun around and ran away from the fireplace as, not one, not two, but _six_ more people poured out of the fireplace, each in succession. Well, five people and a dog.

The other five people immediately berated the blond, presumably for stopping in front of the fireplace, which most wizards knew was extremely rude when one was not traveling by Floo alone.

"Hello!" Eskariot greeted the newcomers cheerfully in fluent English. "You must be the ones Albus told me about! Welcome to my shop. I thank you for choosing my services over Olli—wait... are you an _Ollivander_?"

This question was directed towards a man with longer hair and pale eyes.

"Am I a _what_?" the man said.

"You wouldn't happen to be a son of Octavius Ollivander, would you?"

"No."

"...Daughter?"

The room seemed to crackle with the intensity of this man's cold hard glare. "_No_."

"A joke, it was a joke," Eskariot said meekly. "I knew you were a man. But... you have no relations with Mr. Ollivander whatsoever?"

"Never even heard of him."

"Do you use potions?"

"For what?"

"Nevermind," Eskariot said, scratching his head. "Well, let's get on with it!" he said, leading the guests to a new room. Viktor followed behind the group, watching only out of curiosity.

Some of the members of the group _were_ rather odd. The blond had strange whisker tattoos that weren't out of style—they had never been in style in the first place. The man with the pale eyes didn't seem to use those ridiculously expensive potions to change the colors of his irises, and he also claimed to have absolutely no relation with the famed Ollivanders who were all known for their pale eyes and their ability to see things that other people didn't. Of course, all they saw were names and matching wands or something of that sort.

Plus, there was a pink haired girl—probably an metamorphmagus—in the group, so there had to be something interesting about them.

Viktor found a stool in Eskariot's wand room and sat near the group. The blond was first. Eskariot grabbed a handful of wands and led him to a separate room where they would test out his compatibility with wands. He called it the 'Danger Room', which had old junk that Eskariot had deemed worthy of destruction for young wizards to test out their new wands.

"So," Viktor said, trying to make conversation over the occasional booms and crashes. He was curious to know why Albus Dumbledore would send this group all the way from England to Bulgaria. And if they were such important wizards, why would they need wands at _this_ age? Plus, how could they _not_ know and recognize Viktor Krum, the Quidditch prodigy of Europe?

This was the perfect chance for him to practice his English. With Voldemort's return, he had decided to take a year off of Quidditch and try for another job that suited his other talents.

"What brings you all the way to Bulgaria?"

"Our need of wands, obviously," one of them said. An Asian man with rather plain hair. Not quite short, but it was far from being as long as the hair of the pale-eyed man.

The others seemed to glare at him for his rudeness, but the man didn't seem to care.

"I'm sorry," the pink haired girl said. "My friend is very impolite."

"That's alright," Viktor said. "I'm Viktor Krum, if you did not know."

"Sakura Haruno," she replied politely. "You're a wizard, right?"

"Of course. Everybody around here is," he said. Were _these_ people wizards? It seemed like such an odd question if they were. Maybe they were just Muggles. Or maybe they were geniuses who managed to learn to do magic without wands.

Viktor didn't have much time to contemplate on this. His mother stuck her head in the doorway.

"_Viktor_," she said in Bulgarian. "_It's time to go. You have that meeting today, don't you remember?_"

"_I do, Mother,_" Viktor said, nodding. He turned back to Sakura. "It was a pleasure speaking with you. I hope we meet again," he said as clearly as possible before leaving.

"Bye," Sakura said.

-

**A few days after meeting with Dumbledore  
July 5, 1997  
Hogwarts**

With the way their lifestyle had been since they had first arrived in this world several years ago, the shinobi's adaptation to Hogwarts had been a major improvement. The only person who wasn't completely enjoying their new luxuries was Neji.

He did know that it was a major improvement to the apartments they had been living in before, but...

...He wasn't too happy when Shikamaru told him that he would be taking the place of a Divination professor.

"It's easy," Shikamaru had assured him. "The previous professors didn't seem to know what the heck they were doing and they got along fine enough."

"Why do I have to be a professor?" Neji asked irritably.

"You're the best for this job," Shikamaru said. "Your Byakugan may not work all the time, but you're in a position to see almost the entire school when it does work. The Divination Tower is close to the center of the school, and out of all five towers, it is the tallest. You'll have a bird's eye view of the area. You won't be the only one either. When we get Ino back, she will be your assistant."

"I don't believe in fate. It was years ago that I even _mentioned_ it," Neji said.

"It's not fate that interests me," Shikamaru said. "You'll be teaching them, alright, but it won't be divination..."

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't tell me you've forgotten 'how to read minds'," the genius said with a slight smirk.

Neji's eyes widened slightly. "_Oh._"

"Wait, I just remembered," Sakura said. "It keeps on slipping my mind, but how are we getting Ino back? You never answered my questions. Is she in danger?"

"Yeah," Shikamaru admitted. "She's in the midst of it all."

"Shouldn't we be saving her then?" Sakura asked. "Where is she, anyway?"

"To cut a long story short, she's stuck in our previous client's body and she can't get out until we give her a special potion," he said.

"How did she get stuck in there in the first place?" she asked.

"It's not that she's in dire danger," Shikamaru continued. "The potion wears off after a certain amount of time and she regains a certain amount of motor skills, but she won't have complete control and, to control the actual body, she'll have to catch the host off guard."

"Where is she?" Sai asked as Shikamaru pulled out a map from their bags.

"According to Dumbledore's information, she's somewhere... here," he said, finding and placing a finger on a county in England. "Wiltshire, England."

Shikamaru paused to think and hesitated before making his answer. "Sakura and Kiba," he said, frowning slightly.

"Yeah?"

"You two are coming with me to find Ino. Dumbledore said that there is a fifty-fifty chance that she'll be able to make it back to Hogwarts by herself at the beginning of the next school year, but I don't want to take any unnecessary chances. Her host may be on the run."

"So I'm going on a mission?" Sakura said excitedly.

"Yes," Shikamaru said. "But you know that we can't let anything happen to you. Ino would kill me. Plus, you're our only medic. So avoid danger at all costs."

"Alright," Sakura said, relieved that she was finally going on a mission with the others. An excellent chance to stretch her legs!

"How are you guys getting there?" Naruto asked.

"We'll be Flooing to one of the empty buildings on Diagon Alley," Shikamaru said. "I think it'll probably be a ten-day journey, there and back, if things go smoothly. Dumbledore gave me a cauldron kept at this school. He says it had previously been used by Ino's host just this year. Kiba will find Ino and our client by their scent."

"I'll just have to manage to get the smell of all this other crap sorted out," Kiba said, "but it can be done."

"Is there anything for us to do?" Sai asked.

"Aside from studying the Kwikspell series, no," Shikamaru said. "But don't forget to feed the birds. And try to figure out some way to tell them apart. Names, give them names. ..._Wait_."

"What is it now?" Neji asked, feeling a bit annoyed.

"Change of plans," Shikamaru said. "Naruto's coming too. And Sai, I guess. Wait, not Sai. And Kiba can stay. _Hold on_." He stopped suddenly and closed his eyes to think.

"Finally having some trouble, genius?" Sai asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"We're running on too little information..." Shikamaru said. "Plus, those needed for the mission have too many things to do, and those not needed have nothing on their plates. Hm... Okay, Kiba, Akamaru, Sakura, Naruto, and I are going. Yeah. That part's final. Sai and Neji..." He paused and went through their bags, which had been left in the corner of the room.

"What is it?" Neji asked.

"I have something for both of you," he said, pulling out an old piece of parchment. Everyone huddled over it to find that it was a map of Hogwarts. "I found this the day we came in through the Vanishing Cabinet," Shikamaru explained.

"Wow," Sakura said, looking at the detail of the drawings. "Look, _we're_ on here."

"Yeah," Shikamaru said. "But we're in a wall. Apparently, the mapmakers didn't know that there was a secret room here, so it looks like we're inside a wall. And there are numerous tunnels at Hogwarts—secret entrances and exits. Odds are, there are a few more that the mapmakers didn't spot. Unless they're the ones who _made_ them. So Neji, I want you to find all secret rooms and passages. Sai, I want you to make a new map. A copy of this one, but add on everything that this one doesn't have.

"And, ah... Neji, don't forget to make yourself seem like a real divinist. Oh, and I realized a while ago, but wizards don't know what the heck contacts are. Make up a good lie. And you might want to find something a bit more formal to cover your cursed seal. I don't think grown wizards usually wear bandannas. Sai, you check up on Ino's body daily. I'm sure Poppy is an excellent medi-whatever, but I just want to be sure nothing happens to her body. Wait..."

"What is it now?" Neji asked.

"Kiba and Akamaru," Shikamaru said. "Kiba, how well does Akamaru work without you around to direct him?"

"He can understand you but you can't understand him," Kiba answered. "Why? Wait, you want to _separate_ us?"

"Only for a while," Shikamaru admitted. "I realized that even if Neji found an entrance and if Sai was able to record them, neither of them could effectively open the ways to them. Not without some huge cave-in or anything. I want you three to work together and determine whether or not a part of the castle needs a 'back door'."

"You want me to tunnel around while you guys are out having fun?"

"With your spinning techniques, it shouldn't really be too hard," he said, shrugging. "Dirty, but not impossible for you."

"I don't feel like digging," Kiba said.

"If you made the tunnel, you'd get really dirty, and you'd probably break your nails and scratch up your hands. If Neji or Sai tried tunneling with their own techniques, it would cave in and possibly kill them."

Kiba didn't say anything. "Fine," he said. "You take care of Akamaru when you go then! If he comes back with a single scratch, I'll piss on your bed while you're gone!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "My bed or all of ours?"

"...Yours?"

"Alright," he said. "One more thing."

"What is it now?"

"Don't tell Dumbledore. I don't think he'd appreciate us making holes in his castle," Shikamaru said, shaking his head. "But if we aren't back in a week after we have left, I _do _want you two to find Dumbledore, gain permission to leave Hogwarts grounds, and use the radios. You can go to Hogsmeade to use the radios if you want. Then, you'll wait until we call you. We will then figure a way for us to meet up with you and back us up if something goes wrong."

"Come on," Naruto laughed. "What could possibly go wro—?"

The rest of his friends jumped him, covering his mouth and glaring at him.

"Do _not_ finish that sentence!"

-

**Two months after the team dispatches  
August 24, 1997  
The Burrow, outside the village of Ottery St. Catchpole**

"I've looked everywhere," Harry said to Hermione and Ron at the Burrow, days before Bill and Fleur's wedding.

"Well, maybe it's still at Hogwarts?" Hermione suggested.

"Definitely not," Harry said, rubbing his forehead.

Ever since those strangers had infiltrated Hogwarts...

The night it happened, he, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had stayed up all night talking about it. All access to the Owlery had been banned, as well as the use of Floo powder, and all other types of magical communication devices. Harry had initially dismissed this as some level of alert to prevent the Hogwarts invaders from entering, leaving, or passing information.

But it had, in the end, become clear that the strangers who attacked Hogwarts had successfully escaped, and yet, the high alert had not lessened that night, and all communication was still suppressed.

Until the next morning.

The Golden Trio had stayed up late and, the following morning, had overslept.

As relieved as they were that there were no classes the following morning, the three were immediately suspicious when they had found that not a single person retained a memory of that night. Even Ginny, Neville, and Luna insisted that all they had done the previous night was to go to bed and fall asleep.

On the other hand, if the whole night had been a strange dream that, somehow, Ron, Harry, and Hermione had dreamed up of together in their sleep, then it did not explain the Impediment Jinxes and the Bat Bogey Hexes that Hermione had uncovered with a clever use of the Reverse Spell Effect, the _priori incantatem_, which showed a display of all spells previously casted by the wand.

Since then, all six of the remaining DA members understood that something was amiss at Hogwarts.

Though there was no solid proof, Harry was sure that Draco had something to do with the intruders.

The Malfoy had been the one to fix the Vanishing Cabinet from which the intruders had arrived from. Only days later, Dumbledore asked Harry to watch Draco.

So Harry and his friends had done so, using the Owlery to 'write a letter', as they watched Draco Malfoy who, oddly enough, acted very _normal_ towards them. Well, normal by a standard of 'I-don't-know-you' normal. No insults on their heritage or friends whatsoever. The _ab_normal thing about Malfoy was the fact that he screamed at them.

Malfoy losing his temper towards the group and shouting at them was one thing.

Malfoy screaming at them like a hissy blond _girl_ was another.

Something was up.

And when Harry asked Dumbledore about it when the school year was over, Dumbledore had merely brushed off all questions.

It was on the way to Harry's last visit to the Dursleys that Harry realized that the worst had happened.

The legacy he had received from 'Prongs', 'Moony', 'Padfoot', and 'Wormtail' (whom he would begrudgingly admit to inheriting from) was gone.

He had lost the Marauder's Map.

Well, he had been robbed of it more like.

Thinking back, Harry suddenly vividly remembered that the shadow-manipulating intruder had taken his map of Hogwarts and _kept_ it.

He immediately sent letters to Ron and Hermione for help but received none, as they did not know what else to do either. Weeks later, before the next school term began, Harry had been allowed to Floo to the Burrow for Bill and Fleur's wedding. At the Burrow, the Golden Trio reunited and began to brainstorm possible solutions.

A summoning charm would have been useful, but the fact that, depending on where it currently was, there was always a possibility that the map would come back in pieces.

A location charm was extremely advanced magic. No doubt Hermione could probably pull it off with practice and time, but she was unable to find enough sufficient information about the charm without her resources—namely, the Hogwarts library.

Other than those two spells, none of the three knew what to do to recover the lost map.

In the meantime, they were stuck meeting the rest of the Weasley brood as well as their many future in-laws.

Which would have been a lot easier if they all spoke the same language.

"_Bonjour, je m'appelle Anaïs _(2)," an elegant blonde woman, presumably Fleur's mother, said to Ron, Harry and Hermione in French.

"_Uh... mi... mi nombre es Ron _(3)?" Ron tried, turning red at the sight of the half-veela. Hermione groaned and smacked him upside the head as Fleur's mother angrily stomped away, yet still managing to keep an elegant flow in her footsteps.

Aside from the language barriers, it was still interesting to meet members of the Weasley and Delacour family.

Arthur had three brothers, Molly had four brothers, and they both had a total of thirty-five cousins, too numerous to remember. Fleur's family consisted of a total of eight aunts and uncles, as well as twenty-three nieces and nephews.

It was definitely going to be a large wedding. In addition to the massive family, there was also going to be a number of close friends and guests, as well as aurors provided by the Ministry (to protect the famous Harry Potter, whether he wanted their protection or not) as well as members of Dumbledore's Order, under the guise of family friends.

...Which made everyone wonder when the hell Snape of all people became a close 'family friend'.

However, there were three recent guests who had come along with Snape and stayed the night at the Diggory family's home, who lived nearby (4).

Harry was positive that he had never seen any of these men before, aside from now in passing when Amos Diggory and his wife introduced them before the wedding, but Ron was sure that he had at _least_ seen the shaggy one with the triangle markings on his cheeks.

Bill had, at the time, been busy meeting with Fleur's side of the family, but Molly Weasley handled the situation very well, giving the guests a heaping amount of food to eat, as they all looked 'much to skinny' to be healthy.

In this case, Molly was actually right.

Harry could see rather clearly how right she was. Though they were far from starving, they had a rather 'Remus'-ish look. They lacked the shabby clothes look, dressing casually in Muggle clothing, but they were tall and thin, yet carried themselves in a way that demanded at least some degree of respect.

Except for the one with the triangle markings, who introduced himself as Kiba. He was just blatantly lax and loud, to the point of being terribly impolite.

Of course, no one really minded his manners. He seemed to fit in with the Weasley's quite well. If someone dyed his hair red, Harry was sure he would have been mistaken for one of the Weasley brood as well.

"Hey!" Fred said suddenly, pointing at Sai. "You were the one with the guy!"

"I'm with one and a half guys, to tell you the truth," he said in a completely sincere voice. "Neji actually counts for a half."

"One more jab at my appearance and I'll knock you out," Neji said casually.

"No, I'm not talking about now," the other twin said. "That blond kid!"

"Naruto," Sai said. "And I'm Yamada Taro. You can call me Sai though. Why?"

"Oh, no reason, actually," Fred said casually. "We're just wondering... how on earth did guys _our age_ manage to get their hands on enough money to buy half our inventory? What _are_ you guys anyway?"

"You there," Molly said, pointing a spoon at Neji after she finished piling yet more food on his plate. "Why don't you take off the hat and sunglasses? You don't need the gloves either. It's dead in the middle of summer!"

"I'm not hot," Neji said coolly.

"Poor Neji has eye problems," Mrs. Diggory said sweetly. "And what's worse is that he also has... has... what is it again, dear?"

"It's a somewhat unique condition," Neji said. "I was exposed to a spell. Youjutsu-induced... hypothermia."

"Hypothermia?" Hermione interjected suddenly. "How could _that_ be? Hypothermia refers to the temperature throughout the entire body. Did you get some sort of isolated frostbite in your eye? Is that _possible_?"

"_No_," he said, looking a bit annoyed. "Not frostbite. It was some spell. It's always a bit cool for me, temperature-wise. My eyes were particularly sensitive to it. Eye symptoms from cold temperature exposure include loss of, blurred, or decreased vision, eye pain, double vision, and severe sensitivity to the light."

"My parents are dentists, but I've learned a lot about the human body from their friends too," Hermione said. "Eye injuries cased by cold exposure could be treated by re-warming the eye and using medication to moisten and protect them."

Well wasn't _she_ being Little Miss Smarty-Pants...

"Magic-induced, Miss..."

"Granger."

"...Miss Granger. It's still a rather cool temperature for me, even in the summer, and even with my layers of clothing."

"What about warming spells?"

"No."

"Medi-wizards at St. Mungos could easily cure—"

"I refuse to take treatment from them," Neji said, swiftly cutting her off, abruptly killing the conversation at the table. Luckily, though, Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks chose that very moment to Floo into the room.

Being completely oblivious to the awkward silence, the couple immediately broke the silence with loud greetings.

Being almost unbearably friendly to anything that moved, the couple insisted that they be introduced to the three strange and new Japanese arrivals.

_Not_ being the only people with eyes, everyone noticed Kiba's odd reaction to Lupin.

"Is something wrong...?" Lupin asked uncertainly.

Kiba's jaw was dropped wide open, and his eyes were as large as could be. He had breathed in loudly through his nose, as if either smelling something amazing or gasping.

"...You smell like my _mom_," he said suddenly.

"...Oh," Remus said, not sure whether this was a compliment or not.

Kiba grinned. "Don't worry," he reassured the werewolf. "She smelled really nice."

"As nice as a stinking bitch could smell," Sai said casually.

The entire room went silent.

"Take that back!" Kiba said angrily, getting up in Sai's face.

"No."

"I'm gonna—!" Kiba stopped in mid-sentence. He, once again, had a strange look on his face. Wide eyes, open mouth, and a nervous expression on his face.

"...Bathroom!" he said quickly, running out of the room.

At that very moment, a scarred, red-haired man and a beautiful blond woman walked into the room.

"Bill!" Molly said joyously. "Bill, Fleur, this is Neji and Sai from out of town. You just missed Kiba. Neji, Sai, this is my son Bill and his soon-to-be wife Fleur."

"Oh, yes, the wedding is tomorrow, right?" Sai said with almost plastic politeness that some even noticed.

"Right," Bill said, nodding affirmatively. "Uh... your friend...is he alright?"

Sai looked at Neji and jabbed him in the side with the paint brush he always kept handy for cases like this. "_Mouth shut and stop staring at the bride,_" Sai said mockingly in Japanese. "_Don't tell me you've forgotten all about Burando-san _(5)?"

"_Shut. Up_." Neji glared at Sai. No one seemed to understand what Neji's words meant, but the tone of his voice was clear enough. Everyone in the room felt the briefly enlightened mood fall dreary once again.

"Wait," Hermione said. "Neji, maybe you should go to St. Mungo's? I think your veins are sticking out a bit."

"Are not," Neji said roughly, repositioning his sunglasses and hat once more. "I'm going. I'll find Kiba."

"He's in the bathroom," Sai said. "Going to follow him in there, Okama-kun?"

"Unlike you," Neji said in clearly in enuncie, curt English, "I don't go around staring at another man's _penis _with _questionable interest_."

"You have no proof of that," Sai said with a smile. "Then again, second to Burando-san, you are awfully close to the _dickless_ wonder..."

"Again with the dicks," Neji said, turning around to leave the room. "It's a _wonder_ you don't have a girlfriend."

"_Well, never having had a close friend or girlfriend, I suppose I could honestly say I never lost one_," Sai said, once again speaking in Japanese. Neji was already leaving the room. Not that Sai minded.

The Byakugan could look through walls.

The Hyuuga could read lips.

"_I am aware that you didn't lose anyone close to you_," Neji said in Japanese in the next room. The others could hear him in the other room as well, even though they couldn't understand. "_But I'd have to say that's only because, even if _you_ like one of _us_, we all hate you._"

Sai shrugged without a care. He had gotten his point across to the Hyuuga, and that was what mattered most to him.

-

"Why are you following me to the bathroom?"

"Why are you avoiding Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour?"

"Was Sai being an ass?"

"Are you really going to the bathroom?"

"You aren't going to look and see, right?"

Neji glared at him. The Inuzuka laughed nervously and sighed.

"Heh, well...you know. Our last mission two months ago," he said. "I ended up fighting a giant, a big guy, a redhead, and some woman. I ended up getting caught for a while and the redhead guy saw my face. Well, all of them did, actually. I managed to get out of the ropes and ended up pretty much tearing into the redhead guy."

"Who just so happened to be Bill," Neji said understandingly. "You've scarred up his face and he's seen yours."

"Exactly."

"And you can't henge out of this one because everyone else has seen you," Neji said with a frown. "Targeting only one specific target for a ninjutsu would be a lot easier if Ino or Sakura was here. They're much better with chakra control."

"...Wait, if they're good with chakra control, then what are you? I mean, you could make chakra needles small enough to poke them into the tiny holes—"

"There is a difference," Neji said, "between chakra control and the ability to form chakra needles. To be able to form chakra needles, you need to have chakra control. To have chakra control, you don't have to be able to form chakra needles."

"...So?"

"Naruto was a miracle. We all know that. But how did _you_ manage to graduate from academy school?" Neji asked. "There are different types of chakra control. There are two basic types: independent and dependent."

"I've never heard of _any_ of this."

"That's probably because I'm making it up off the top of my head," Neji admitted.

"Well that's why I graduated academy school!" Kiba joked.

"Nope. You were supposed to have covered these in school as a kid. We just never had a specific name for them," he said. "I looked into Shikamaru and Sakura's research and—"

"Wait a minute, _they_ let you look at _their_ research?" Kiba said incredulously. "No way!"

"No way is right. I skimmed through it with my Byakugan and came up with my own data. ...I made the names up myself, at least. Now getting _back_ on topic, the independent type involves forcing chakra out through your chakra pores and physically manifesting the chakra into solid, corporeal chakra forms, like needles."

"Or your little shield where you don't let anyone through your personal bubble," Kiba said thoughtfully.

"Yeah. ...Anyway, the dependent could be sorted into two smaller categories: mental and physical. The dependent mental chakra control is one particularly specific to Yamanakas. Close to a bloodline but not quite there yet. I'd give them a generation or two for more pronounced signs. Probably a complete bloodline at four generations. Six at most... Anyway, the Yamanaka shinobi send out chakra impulses that they somehow combine with a part of their mind, whether it is conscious thought or emotions. I consider it dependent because it doesn't physically manifest outside of the body."

"So the independent first thing is independent because if you shove it in someone, they open and bleed. The dependent second thing—"

"Dependent mental."

"Yeah, that. The dependent second thing is dependent because if you shove the chakra in someone..."

"No physical damage, no physical manifestation. You're right. Now the dependent physical does not manifest outside the body as well. You don't send it out as a physical manifestation nor do you send it out in chakra waves. You store the chakra inside of you."

"...Chakra is _always_ inside of us," Kiba said.

"Let me be more specific, you focus it on a body part," Neji said, rolling his eyes.

"_Oh_."

"Yeah. Now, ordered from best to worst when it comes to casting an illusion over a specific person, it would go from Ino, to Sakura, to me. I'm not a genjutsu type of person. Ino could probably just temporarily affect his mind, instead of a direct possession, so that he doesn't see you, doesn't recognize you, or doesn't acknowledge you. Sakura could probably cast some sort of complex illusion. Me... well, the most I can do to stop Bill in particular from recognizing or seeing you would probably be to poke his eyes out."

"Do you think—?"

"And _no, _I will _not_."

"Okay." Kiba took a deep breath and leaned his head back against the wall. "Dang it, I've got one helluva headache thanks to you."

"Well then now you have an excuse to skip dinner," Neji said dismissively when he was interrupted rudely by the voice that both he and Kiba last wanted to hear.

"Hey, you two," Sai said, knocking on the door. "If you're both doing something I don't want to see, I suggest you stop doing it now because I am coming in."

"_Shut up, Sai_," both Kiba and Neji said at the same time.

"No," Sai said simply, picking the lock of the bathroom door and letting him inside. "Why, Kiba, I knew you were a dog that went after anything on two legs, but _Neji_? He only _looks_ like a—"

"We've got a dilemma," Neji said, cutting him off and glaring at Sai. "We can't let Bill see Kiba."

"Yeah, Bill did mention how he was attacked by a werewolf that seemed to have the ability to change without the full moon," he said, nodding in understanding.

"Any ideas as to what we could do?" Kiba asked.

"...Everyone here knows that we have some sort of connection with Dumbledore," Sai said. "Make up an excuse. Or better yet, don't make it up. Give them the real one. We're waiting for the arrival of our missing companions. They may be here either tonight, tomorrow night, or the night after that. It is Kiba's turn to keep an eye out for them, which means he'll be outside keeping an eye out for our friends."

"Cool," Kiba said, lifting his head up from the wall. "I'll leave now then."

"Oh," Sai said. "By the way, when _will_ they be coming back?"

"I spoke with Sakura just moments ago," Kiba said, lifting a tuft of hair to reveal a tiny radio. "The radio is cheap, the reception is crap, and Sakura was really busy taking care of them, but from the sounds of it, all six of them are slowly making it back here safely."

"Wait, six?" Neji said.

"Yeah. I said six. Akamaru, Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, Naruto..." Kiba said, listing off names, "...and Draco Malfoy. Our former client."

-

"That boy..." Remus said thoughtfully after all three of the newcomers had left.

"Which one?" Charlie asked. "There were three."

"Three?" Bill repeated.

"You missed the third one," his brother told him. "He left right before you came in. Taro is the kind of plain looking guy. Prefers to be called Sai. The Asian equivalent of you with sunglasses, a hat, and a cane was Neji. The third guy had brown hair and weird triangle marks was Kiba."

"Triangle marks?" Bill repeated in confusion.

"Kiba," Remus said, nodding. "I was talking about Kiba."

"What about him?" Mrs. Diggory asked.

"He _did_ look awfully familiar," Tonks offered.

"He said I smelled like his mother..." Remus Lupin said. "I say that he smells like a werewolf."

-

"Think we're still being followed?" Ino/Draco asked.

"Maybe," Sakura said, rubbing the bags from under her eyes. "Naruto, how's your seal?"

"Still good," the blond said perkily, patting his stomach. "All eight accounted for."

There was a flicker of suspicion in Shikamaru's eye that did not go unnoticed.

"It's _true_," Naruto insisted.

"I believe you," the genius said. "But... never mind. How is everyone?"

"Fine," Naruto said.

"I'm still feeling a bit tired," Sakura said, "but we're almost at this 'burrow'. I'll be able to take a break once we're done."

Akamaru barked. None of the shinobi understood what the dog was saying, but it sounded like a bark of confirmation. He was probably fine. The dog was rather energetic anyway, wagging his tail and begging for attention and pats on the head.

"My body is aching all over..." Ino/Draco complained, curling up in a ball. "Geez, this kid has got to be in the worst shape I've ever been in."

"Technically, almost everyone in this world is dreadfully out of shape in comparison to our own bodily functions," Shikamaru said. "But I think you've just never noticed it because you never spent such a long time in another person's body."

"True..." Ino/Draco muttered. Two months was way too long in this body. Not only was she pushing the body past the original host's limits to match her own, but the mental stress of being separated from her own body, needing to return, and yet being unable to do so put her in an almost unbearable pain. Her joints ached, her muscles burned, and she had an almost literally splitting ache in the head.

"I might be able to mix up a migraine cure from scratch..." Sakura said thoughtfully, looking at the green life growing beneath their feet.

"Don't even try it," Ino said. "You probably couldn't tell the difference between clovers and poison ivy."

"Hey!" Sakura said, feeling offended.

"Oh, don't get annoyed. We can't see as clearly in the dark anyway. We shouldn't risk going out into the moonlight to search for herbs. We aren't making a fire because that's even_ worse_ than going out into the open.We _won't _risk being spotted by the enemy," Ino said. "As far as I can see it, we're just going to have to grin and bear it until daylight comes and we can tell where the enemy is and what the difference between potion and poison is."

Sakura sighed, staring up at the full moon. "I guess you're right," she said, disliking the predicament she was in. As a medic, it was her duty to help the injured. As a member of a team with no spare members, it was her responsibility to take care of her temporary and surrogate family the best she could. And as a friend, it was her instinct to do everything she could to stop them all from getting hurt or killed. Or worse...

Left behind.

-

**Words to Know**

(1) _Sokuseijumon_ is literally "instant spell". Technically, it should be 'sokuseki', which means instant, or instantly (not sure...), but since this is a Japanese version of Kwikspell, which is also spelled incorrectly, I used 'sokusei', which does mean instant, but is more like the instant food. Like instant ramen.  
(2) "_Bonjour, mon nom est Anaïs._" (French) Hello, my name is Anaïs.  
(3) "_Mi nombre es Ron._" (Spanish) My name is Ron.  
(4) Apparently, the Fawcetts, the Lovegoods, and the Diggories live in the same general vicinity of Ottery St. Catchpole. I don't know who the heck the Fawcetts are, the Lovegood father and daughter are a bit... loopy, and the Diggories have no son and are lonely. Best solution? Give them three pretty much grown up men who all absolutely do not get along with each other. That'll give them enough on their plates.  
(5) Burando-san: Sai's nickname for Tenten. I have no idea what 'bland' is in Japanese, so I just converted it directly from bland to burando to have Sai call Tenten bland and boring.

-

**My Thinking Corner**

For Shikamaru, well, the reason he was so indecisive earlier in the chapter... The really sharp could say that this is mainly because he's been spending so much time trying to think of ways to get themselves out of their situation working under Dumbledore that he's trying to 'predict the distant future' without making too many significant mistakes. The not so sharp could say that Shikamaru's just indecisive. The realistically blunt could say that I was just typing as I went and that I just didn't feel like going back to edit who was going in the end.

Well, it turns out, it's all of the above.

Ah, okay, my writing went off and on for this chapter. I was somewhere stuck between a sleep-deprived and brain-dead mode and a 'must-write-or-suffer-self-inflicted-consequences' mode.

Anyway, sorry, but there is no way that I'm going to go into detail with what wands they've got. I mean, whenever people do that, it's always something super-special like the hair of a Kyuubi or wood from a Sakura tree or the tooth/bone of a basilisk (I'm actually guilty of that basilisk thing in my other crossover...). Why can't they just be normal? I did my research—there is no five millennium year old Sakura tree, and even if there was, it can't be used for a wand.

I've done my research, and here it is (copied, pasted, and modified from various websites to fit into this one brief summary):

What Naruto and the others actually _got_ might get explained later, but I don't think it's that big a deal right now. ...Or ever. However, the odds of them making a big deal out of what wands they have are pretty slim, considering only one (I think) uses them, like, ever. If even that one person/

-

dark672: Thanks!  
blade75: Thanks, and sorry about making them seem 'weak' and all. I mean, I just thought that since they were just better than average, they may have a hard time with a wizard who's got over a hundred years' worth of experience on them, plus the magic and the fact that Dumbledore is the most powerful wizard alive. And then there's also the fact that they're all a bit rusty, having been unable to go 'full power' very often, even on the jobs that Shikamaru assigned them.  
celtic-pride: Hehe, it's not a complete reversal anyway. But the OCDs aren't too bad sometimes. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as my habit of making this really off-tune humming sound at random intervals every hour or so. I sorta stop though.  
yinan: Thanks for the review!  
Zsych: The point of sealing the Kyuubi is so that it _doesn't_ get out, haha. I really don't like bringing it into the story. Also, Sai isn't the one in control of the seals. Not that it matters, since the seals could still be weakened, but the thing is there are nine seals in total. The other eight could easily be weakened, but if the main seal (the first one, made by the fourth hokage) is weakened slightly, it's permanently weakened. The other seals can be weakened and then strengthened (the details as to how they work will come later), but the other one is completely independent of all others. Sai has no control over that seal. Plus, the Kyuubi seems like the easy way out. Almost like cheating. And that's also what any other writer would do to get the shinobi out of situation. Well, not would do, but could do. I actually kind of prefer to force myself to think of situations for the shinobi to get into and strategies for them to get out of the situations that they got themselves into. It's a part of growing up. It's like... the Kyuubi is a falback thing. Almost like a parent. Something huge happens, and a kid can always use their fallback, running back to their parents to let Mommy and Daddy take care of things. But when they do that, they don't learn a lesson as well, and it feels like in any situation, all they have to do is depend on someone else's strength. I don't mean to be insulting to other writers and stuff, but having everyone depend on the Kyuubi for everything feels akin to a guy still living with his mother when both he and his mother don't really need to live dependent on each other. And no, the shinobi cannot learn magic, for reasons that I will divulge later on in the story. And intelligence isn't everything. I'd say that the person who would learn magic most quickly would be Naruto with his Kage Bunshin learning technique, but... impossible, for certain reasons. But yeah, Naruto's going to be into wand-busting alright... Mehehehehe... And Sakura... She probably would have learned magic easily, but the only thing she'll be able to do is, well, nevermind. The L idea, however... Ironic. You read my mind! I'm on the fourteen chapter and you already guessed a part of my plot! Thought shinobi-capable battle tactics isn't really taught by wizards, in books or in school. And the plan has been in motion since Shikamaru has found out about legilimens.  
dieselpower: Um... (stares wide-eyed and walks away)  
Emi-chan: If that wasn't the right answer, then it was insanely close! XD And youch.. pyromaniac, anyone?  
KakashiPwnsAllUNoobs: Whenever I read that name, I can't help laughing. Anyway, thanks!  
Dee: Thanks!  
DualX: I'm afraid Heavenly, Inu, and Demon wood all do not exist. Hehe, sorry, couldn't help but make that comment. It just reminds me of an inside joke with a friend that I made... which shall remain inside, I'm afraid. Anyway, the wand they received barely makes any difference to them.  
SAD: Thanks for reviewing!  
silent reader: I really enjoyed your review! As for the hostages, since Shikamaru was in no real position for striking the deals, the new alleged "hostage" was based on Dumbledore's preferences. Now, Sakura and Naruto would not be on his list of preferences, because he doesn't know their abilities. Anyway, Shikamaru is aware that none of the shinobi are expendable, so he's going to do his best to keep the others as "far away" from the "crazy old man" as possible. Of course, Dumbledore is aware that Naruto is extremely durable, but not much else about him. Your guesses were almost rather accurate, actually. But think about it this way: would you rather control the king or his knights? I never really got to explaining it in detail, but the reason that Naruto never summons Gamabunta or whatever is that his new summons would be tadpoles. Ino went through the trouble of raising the crows from chicks all the way until they grew larger, but she was the only one with the patience to do so. And crows grow faster than the toads and most other summons as well. The pocket dimension of Naruto's world that held the animal summons had grown over the centuries of being summoned. In the meantime, the pocket dimension of Harry's world that held the animal summons had never before been called upon, therefore those who summoned the animals and brought them to this world would end up calling on baby summons. If they wanted the big ones, they'd probably have to use decades' worth of summonings.

**_Oh, and the reason why I posted this chapter earlier than usual (on a Thursday, rather than Friday or the weekend) was because I'm going on vacation! w00t! I'm going to Denver, Colorado at the Heavenly Ski resort! It's actually been two years since I last went up there. It used to be a yearly thing, but issues came up during last years spring break so I missed it. This year, however, I'm going to try snowboarding! According to schedule, I should be back on Wednesday, but in all likelihood, you could expect me back on Monday in a fullbody cast. _**

**_HAVE A NICE SPRING BREAK EVERYONE! _**

**_...AND IF YOU DON'T HAVE ONE OR IT'S NOT UNTIL APRIL OR SOMETHING THEN, UHH... HAVE A NICE WEEK(end?)!-! _**


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 08: Werewolf

**Next Day--After the wedding, evening party  
August 25, 1997  
Fields outside of the Burrow**

"Hey there."

Kiba shouted and fell forward, not expecting to see the man standing behind him.

"Are you alright?" Remus Lupin asked him.

"I'm...fine..." Kiba said, wondering how on earth a sickly middle-aged guy managed to sneak up behind him. He leaned away from the man, trying to be subtle, though his wrinkled nose gave his apparent distaste of him away. "...Shouldn't I be the one asking if _you're_ alright?"

"What do you mean?"

"You smelled fine a while ago," he said, shrugging. "But now you smell like vomit. Or... I _think_ it's vomit. What the hell did you just eat?"

"Chicken," Remus said, holding out a plate in front of Kiba. "I brought it from the party."

"Awesome," Kiba said, taking the chicken from Remus.

"Watching the sun set?" Remus asked him, taking a seat next to the Inuzuka.

"I'm supposed to be watching for my friends," Kiba said, scratching his head and taking a deep breath. "But I don't really know where they're coming from." He bit into the chicken and gagged.

"...Oh, that chicken might be a bit undercooked," Remus said.

"A _bit_?" Kiba said, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "It's bleeding in the middle!"

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to see something."

"Like what?!"

"If you'd eat it."

"..." Kiba stared at the man. "...You're freaking crazy."

"Just suspicious," Remus said. The Inuzuka continued to stare, waiting for him to elaborate. "Kiba Inuzuka, right? Do you know what a werewolf is?"

"...A wolf."

Remus smiled. "Yes. A magical one," he said. "The wolf part of a werewolf technically doesn't exist except for a brief period of time. He is a completely normal human, but on the night of a full moon, he becomes a wolf."

Kiba paused. "...Cool."

"That's not a person's usual reaction to werewolves. A werewolf comes into being when a person is bitten by another werewolf. Once this happens, the person must learn to manage the condition. Modern potion-making has come up with a draught called the Wolfsbane Potion, which I suppose does taste disgusting. Like vomit, as you so eloquently put it."

"Wait a minute..."

This man was a werewolf.

...Oh.

That probably explained the excess facial hair. He didn't look like the type to leave his five o'clock shadow untended to.

"The Wolfsbane Potion controls some of the worst effects of the condition—lessens the pain the werewolf feels when he transforms and keeps his mind stable while in this form—but it cannot completely cure a man of lycanthropy."

"And lycanthropy is...?"

"It's considered to be the magical disease or condition inflicted upon a person when bitten by a werewolf, and thus _creating _a werewolf—"

"Hn... It shouldn't be considered a disease, I think," Kiba said thoughtfully, looking up at the moon itself. He frowned. Damn clouds messing with the view.

"Really now?" Remus said, looking extremely interested.

Kiba glanced at the man with a frown. "It's a stupid thing, separating one person from another. I mean, if you're labeled as diseased, people do their best to stay the hell away from you, right?" he said. scratching his head. "By naming it an incurable, dangerous disease... it just causes a huge rift. I never experienced it personally, but I know someone who was alone for the most part of his life because the elders were too stubborn to change their views as to what he was. They labeled him as a monster. None of us—the next generation—understood why everyone seemed to hate this one kid, but their attitude rubbed off on us and we hated him too."

"You did, did you?" Remus said thoughtfully.

"Well, I didn't hate him. He was a decent guy. Awesome prankster, which was good and bad. Good because he was funny. Bad because he was competition." Kiba paused. "I suppose the main reason he and I weren't really friends was because I thought he was a freaking idiot. And then he beat me in some really important exams. I mean, I passed him up in the end, but that was because he went out of town and didn't finish. Considering the fact that the two people who got the two lowest grades in academy beat me... I was devastated," Kiba said, laughing.

"The two lowest?" Lupin repeated.

"Yup. The first never got the right kind of education. No parents, so he had to learn everything himself, which was pretty impressive when I found out. The second guy... lazy as hell. I've heard rumors that, apparently, the reason why he really didn't get the _highest_ grades was because he was too lazy to pick up a pencil."

"I don't think it was meant literally—"

"Oh yeah it was. One time, our village was being attacked. Almost everyone was unconscious. People were getting hurt and he was just lying on the ground pretending to be out cold just so he wouldn't have to do anything," Kiba laughed. "Hn. I wonder why I'm telling you all this..."

"That's because the raw chicken _also _had a few drops of a mild truth serum," Remus said idly. "You just couldn't taste it through the uncooked part of the meat."

Kiba's eyes widened. "You...! Why?!"

"I just wanted to see," Remus said, lying back on the grassy slope to stare at the sky. The sun had set a while ago. The sky was cloudy, obscuring the moon. There was still time.

"See what?!"

"If you were one too," he answered.

"Why did you think I was—?"

"'A werewolf can be distinguished from a true wolf physically by several small distinguishing characteristics, including the pupils of the eyes, the snout shape, the tufted tail, the larger paws, the thicker and coarser fur, the colors of the eyes, and the larger size'," Remus said, giving Kiba a textbook version of the details. "Picking a werewolf from another human, however, is a bit harder. Their hair color usually represents the color of a wolf. You won't see too many with bright red hair. Those with certain color hairs seem to hold a slightly stronger resistance to lycanthropy. Not enough to completely prevent it, but at least from losing one's conscious thoughts, the pain felt, and the completion of the transformation. Werewolves in their human forms usually have thicker hair around the full moon, usually hair with signs of gray or white since they rarely have hair of one complete color, they have slightly slitted eyes."

"...I have slitted eyes at least."

"That was how a wizard can tell," Remus continued. "A werewolf can identify people by scent. Their sense of smell is heightened by lycanthropy. A werewolf smells like an ordinary human, but you also get a whiff of..."

"...Of something just slightly '_off_'," Kiba finished for him. "A bit musty, a bit 'foresty', a bit like the earth."

"So you _are_ a werewolf?" Remus asked. "Because if you are... I hope you've taken the Wolfsbane Potion."

"Heh?" Kiba turned his head sharply to look at Remus Lupin, who was beginning to transform with the emergence of the full moon.

He looked up at the sky, watching the full moon peak out from behind the clouds.

"Oh."

Kiba would have just shrugged it off when he smelled something strange. He turned around to find that Remus Lupin was a wolf larger than that he had ever seen. Kiba stared at him in surprise, and the wolf stared at him back as well, looking rather stunned himself, probably by the fact that Kiba had not transformed with him.

"Wait a minute... shit," Kiba said, jumping up to his feet and running away from the werewolf and towards the woods.

Actually, it was not the transformation that alarmed the Inuzuka. With how casual the man was, talking to him on the night of the full moon, rattling on and on about his beloved Wolfsbane potion, and such, Kiba doubted he was in much danger from the wolf, tamed by the potion.

No, that wasn't it.

At his post on the grassy hill, he was downwind. The spot was a perfect spot to find his friends. There were few trees and it was far from civilization, whether it was from the Muggle village or the Wizard residents. He could hear many things. The hill gave him the high ground, and it was easy to see around the sparse trees. He could see many things. All the breezes in the area seemed to flow through this area. He could smell everything.

Like the scent of blood.

-

"What the hell was that thing?" Ino/Draco said angrily as the group ran. She stopped talking for a moment as they ran, as if listening to something. "Oh shut up, Malfoy!" she said suddenly. "...Oh yeah? I don't want to _be_ in your stupid body!"

"Whatever he's saying, just ignore him," Shikamaru said. Akamaru barked. "What is it?" he asked, as they all slowed down.

The dog whined.

"I'm starting to think that separating Kiba and Akamaru was a bad idea," Naruto muttered. "We don't even know what the hell is wrong."

"Well, we do know that there's someone after us," Sakura said. "And if they've been running after us at this pace, then we know that they're probably not human or they're shinobi."

"The Akatsuki?" Ino asked.

"I don't think that it's the Akatsuki following us," Shikamaru mused. "The only here in this world whom we are aware of would be Deidara and Tobi. I don't know anything about Tobi, but if it was Deidara following us, he would have easily caught up, since he can travel by air and we're on foot. We can't assume that all of the Akatsuki are in this world. It's possible but unlikely."

"Then what could possibly be following us?" Sakura wondered.

Shikamaru paused. Something jumped out of the trees towards the group.

"That!" he said and they all scattered.

Akamaru growled at the creature in the darkness.

"Akamaru," Shikamaru said to the dog. "Keep your distance."

Kiba's wolf-like dog didn't show any sign of understanding Shikamaru's commands, barking in confirmation to orders like he usually did with Kiba; he did, however, keep a wary distance between himself and the creature.

All the shinobi stood completely still. The only movement was between Akamaru and this wolf, both of whom were circling each other warily.

"I've never seen a wolf that huge," Sakura said. "Bigger than _Akamaru_."

No one made any noise until—

The wolf lunged towards Akamaru at an incredible speed.

"Don't let that thing touch you!" Ino shouted, and Akamaru took a leap backward out of the wolf's path. "Run! Run, run, run!"

"What's wrong?" Shikamaru said.

"Malfoy says something about how this thing's bites and scratches are infectious. Attack from a distance and don't let it bite!"

"As if we _want_ to get bitten," Sakura said sarcastically, but she mentally noted that her healing powers might not be as useful for some infectious disease spread through physical attacks. She could heal the body, but she doubted she could separate viruses or bacteria from flesh and blood. Best to keep a distance.

It was way too dark to see properly. Sakura squinted through the darkness and glanced through the trees for signs of the wolf when she heard the frantic high pitched scream of a man possessed by a woman.

"Ino!" Sakura shouted when she heard Shikamaru shout as well.

"_Anya no jutsu _(Dark Night Technique) (1)!"

Sakura only went a few meters when she found Ino/Draco facing a mass of fur and darkness on the ground with Shikamaru standing off to the side.

"This," Shikamaru said, with a touch of either smugness or relief, "is why you don't attack a Nara after sunset."

"Sheesh, we almost made it to Kiba and Neji and Sai without getting caught by an enemy," Ino/Draco said, bending down to peer at the wolfish creature squirming on the ground. Akamaru whined.

"That's not a dog or a wolf or even a coyote," Naruto said, frowning. "Well, it could be a wolf, I guess, but it's, like, deformed!"

"A werewolf," Ino said. She paused, probably listening to Draco Malfoy shouting in her head. Moments later, she was shouting to herself in English. "_Coward! Why should I listen to you? I mean sure, I'm in your body and everything that happens to this body happens to mine, but... Screw you, Draco Malfoy! Once I'm out of here, I'm kicking your sorry ass and hanging it up on the wall for everyone to see and say 'The great and rich Draco Malfoy got his ass kicked by a _girl_!' And then they'll laugh at you about how you hired the wrong_—"

"Ino..." Shikamaru said in a strained voice, his eye almost twitching.

"—_group! ...What do you mean I'm changing the subject?! Okay, then, let's get back on topic! You. Are. A. Coward._"

"_Ino..._"

"_C'mon, wolfie's all tied up!_" she said, probably to Malfoy, since she still wasn't paying Shikamaru any attention, despite the gravity of the situation, which remained unfelt.

"NowolfieISN'T! Naruto!" Shikamaru said, all in one breath as all of the shinobi scattered when the wolf lunged at Ino, the closest to it. Naruto tackled her to the ground and, in the blink of an eye, was dragging her back as he made kage bunshin after kage bunshin to prevent the wolf from targeting them immediately, at least a little.

Ino/Draco shrank back and Naruto lunged forward as the wolf bounded towards their location when a missile-like whirlwind of grass, dirt, and debris cut them off.

"Akamaru?" Naruto said, looking at a half-canine, half-human combination.

"No, Kiba!" Kiba said. "Can't ya tell the diff—? Gah!"

He narrowly jumped out of the way of the wolf. It was abnormally quick—as quick as a nin-dog.

"Werewolf!" the Inuzuka shouted. "Akamaru!"

Kiba and Akamaru ran together for the dog and became two cyclone-like torpedoes curving and aiming specifically for the werewolf. The force of the momentum easily knocked the werewolf back and the attack would have been executed and finished flawlessly for them if, as Kiba turned, he had been able to move _around_ the tree instead of _right through it_, as well as through three more thick trunks and just plan crashing into the fifth tree.

"Youch," Naruto muttered, unable to suppress a flinch at the sound of the crack as Kiba made impact with the trees.

Note to self, Kiba thought to himself, struggling to get up from his hands and knees. Don't crash into trees. It _hurts_.

He froze, hearing Akamaru yelp in pain.

"Agham'ru!" Kiba shouted, shaking off the ache in his head as he spun around to see what happened.

A big mistake, it seemed, as his shouting and moving brought on an onslaught of pain and nausea, as well as the attention of the werewolf. Struggling to keep himself from falling backwards, his eyes widened when he became immediately aware of the narrow eyes, the yellow fangs, and the blinding white pain in his neck.

He yelped, falling under the large bulk of the wolf. If he could go into his dog form, he could probably get out, but if the wolf's grip on his neck was too strong, the sudden growth in size could possibly tear his throat up further, despite the defense his fur would grant him.

"Kiba!" Naruto shouted, running towards the wolf with an only half-formed yet twice as dangerous Rasengan in his palm. He jumped back when Sakura threw a kunai at his feet.

"Keep that Rasengan away from Kiba unless you want to hurl that wolf away with a chunk of his _neck_!" she said, throwing the rest of her kunai at the werewolf, which ended up buried in it thick layers of fur.

"Sakura, keep back!" Shikamaru said. Concentrating on forming bits of solid shadow between the wolf's maxillary and the mandible, he struggled to pry the wolf's jaws apart. He was in no way in need of more darkness, but with adrenaline and borrowed chakra pumping throughout his body, he didn't want to risk tearing Kiba's neck in the process.

Despite the need for careful dexterity, Shikamaru almost immediately managed to loosen the wolf's grab on Kiba.

"Naruto!"

"On it!"

Dozens of kage bunshin crowded the werewolf, others standing back since only two of them were able to hold onto the jaws at a time.

To get the mad wolf off Kiba, the kage bunshin had to stick the hand in the jaws to pull the head back, resulting in bitten and bloody fingers and risking having the contaminated saliva in his bloodstream. Unsure of whether this lycanthropy disease would kill a kage bunshin slowly or immediately, Naruto didn't give his doppelgangers a chance to disappear on their own, dispelling those that had come in contact with the wolf to replace them with 'fresh' kage bunshin. Two would grab onto the jaws and the rest would do their best to help get rid of wolf, wrenching ears, cutting at skin and fur, and pulling fur.

Kiba growled at the wolf, clutching his neck. The werewolf probably would have responded in an equally ferocious growl if it wasn't for the low rumbling from behind them all.

The shinobi and the wolf turned around in surprise to find a second werewolf standing behind them, hackles raised and fangs glistening.

"Sakura, ignore the two and get over here!" Shikamaru said, kneeling at Kiba's side to inspect the damage. Ino was already doing what she could. In Malfoy's body, she didn't have access to her normal shinobi chakra, but she had enough to restore at least some of the flesh and skin with this 'magical' energy, which was still somewhat new to her.

"Dammit," Sakura muttered, placing a glowing green palm over the neck.

"I'd say we ought to bleed him out with the possibility of werewolf contamination," Ino said worriedly, "but I don't think he could afford to lose any more blood than he already has."

Akamaru whined. Sakura closed her eyes, concentrating on mending the torn throat and thanking the gods of this world that, despite massive damage to the windpipe, there would be no lasting injuries and that there was no damage to the bones of his neck and the nerves, which were much too difficult for her to heal after strenuous travel throughout England.

"Whoa..." Naruto muttered, looking up behind them to watch the two werewolves fight.

"What is it?" Ino asked.

"One... I can't tell which wolf is winning," he said. "And two... I can't tell which one is our 'friend'."

"_If _it even is our friend," Shikamaru said. He left the group slightly to face the fighting, snarling werewolves. "Then it's _not anymore_," he said.

"Kage Nui (_Shadow Sewing_)!"

More like spikes than needles, shadowy tendrils snaked through the air and struck both wolves in the sides, drawing blood from both of them.

Outnumbered and injured, the enemy werewolf ran away. He watched the remaining werewolf in case it retaliated against Shikamaru's attack. Surprisingly enough, it _didn't_.

Almost as if it was consciously aware of the fact that the only way for Shikamaru to end the fight was to attack both werewolves, the last wolf sat on its haunches and casually licked its own wounds.

"I'm going after—!" Naruto started.

"No," Shikamaru said, cutting him off. "Stay as a group. I wouldn't want to deal with a possible attack on the main group afterward by a follow-up enemy team. Stay here. Kiba was the only fresh shinobi nearby, and I don't think we'll be counting on Kiba for back-up anytime soon. The rest of us don't have your abilities. And you're closest to completely healed."

Naruto nodded. "I'll call for a bit more backup then," he said, pulling his radio out of his pockets. "Uh..." It was cracked and broken, as if he had sat on it.

"...Here, take mine," Shikamaru said, handing Naruto his own.

Naruto picked up the headset and put it on. "Neji, Sai, can you hear me?" He paused for a response and nodded to Shikamaru. "Reception's crap, but it'll do," he said.

Shikamaru nodded. "Okay."

"Okay, guys, look, we're... among trees right now. I'm not sure where you guys are but—okay then," Naruto said. He removed the headset. "They'll be here in one minute, forty seconds, give or take a moment or two," he said to Shikamaru. "How's Kiba?" He turned around to look.

"He'll be fine," Sakura reassured them. "He'll have teeth marks on his throat, but I'll burn out if I do any more than this..."

The werewolf approached them slightly, only to have the shinobi react immediately, on guard against a possible attack. Akamaru barked and wagged his tail.

"...We can trust him," Ino said.

"You can understand Akamaru?" Naruto asked.

"No." Ino tapped her temple. "But the voice inside of my head says that that's his enemy, so he's our friend."

The werewolf stared suspiciously at Ino. Considering the fact that she was in the body of the enemy of his dead best friend's son's worst enemy, she didn't blame him.

"When we get back, I'm going to talk to Dumbledore," Shikamaru said. Ino/Draco turned to him and nodded, but glared when he added the rest of his sentence as an after thought. "_Alone._"

"Why can't I go?" Ino/Malfoy said. "I'm always with you!" She paused, listening to Malfoy in her head. "Ugh, Malfoy, if you don't stop your ranting _right now_, I'll go back on my word and kill you!"

"What's Malfoy saying now?" Shikamaru asked her.

"He's not complaining or making stupid comments like he was before," Ino said derisively, "but now it's even worse. He's just plain freaking out. He wants us to back away."

"_Why_?" Shikamaru said suspiciously.

"I don't know. He's just ranting now. Like, something about how Kiba's cursed now. Malfoy keeps on shouting for me to run away because Kiba's a... werewolf?"

"The same as that thing that attacked us?" Sakura said. "He doesn't look any hairier than usual."

"Um—_slow down, dammit!_—lycanthropy! It's supposed to take effect every full moon," Ino said, attempting to sort through Malfoy's English. "Oh _crap_!"

"What?"

"There's no cure for lycanthropy," Ino said. "If Kiba's been infected—"

"He hasn't," Sakura said stubbornly.

"How do you know?"

"I don't," she said, "but we're almost definitely biologically different from people here! It might just not affect us."

"But—"

"No buts," Sakura said firmly. "And even if Kiba can't be cured, we'll figure something out. I _was_ Tsunade's apprentice after all."

Ino looked as if she were about to protest, but she hesitated under her friend's determined glare. She smiled weakly. "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your pride," she said. "How could I have forgotten? You were the Hokage-sama's apprentice." Ino laughed nervously. She heard whining. "Aw, Akamaru, don't make that sound... Kiba's going to be just fine."

Ino combed her fingers through the fur but frowned when the whining didn't stop. In fact, the whining wasn't even coming from... wait a minute...

If that was Akamaru whining on Sakura's lap, then whose fur was she—

Oh.

..._Oh._

"Eeeeyaaaaah!" Ino screamed in unison with Malfoy's shrieks inside her head. The werewolf that had been practically sleeping by her side jerked up to its feet and looked around, frantically searching for an enemy and growling.

"Calm it down!" Naruto said, backing away from the huge animal.

"There's no enemy," Ino said. "No one's—" She stopped in mid-sentence, seeing two people quickly approaching them in the darkness.

The werewolf darted away from the shinobi and ran towards the figure.

An enemy or friend?

"_Hakkesh__ō Dai_..." a familiar voice in the darkness said.

"Wait, no!" everyone shouted towards the voice and the werewolf.

"_Kaiten_!" ((A/N: a larger version of the heavenly spin, by the way...))

Ino winced as she heard a yelp and a thud as the werewolf was thrown back at them.

"Neji!" Ino shrieked.

"_What_?" Neji shouted back, responding defensively to Ino's angry shouts.

"You attacked the werewolf!"

"That thing?" Sai asked, moving out from behind Neji and pointing at the werewolf slowly crawling up from the ground. "Why not?"

Ino scratched the wolf behind the ears. "He helped us," she said.

Neji looked skeptically at Kiba, on the ground next to Sakura. "Those bite marks on Kiba's throat don't really help your case."

"There were two of them," Ino said angrily.

"Look, I know you two aren't the best of friends," Sakura said, interrupting them before an argument between Ino and Neji could break out, "but if you guys don't help us get Kiba back to... back to..."

"The Diggories," Ino supplied. "They were staying at the Diggories."

"If you guys don't help us get Kiba back to the Diggories—"

"Not the Diggories," Neji interrupted. "They're throwing an evening party. Plus, they're out of Floo powder and the Weasley's are closer."

"CUT ME OFF AGAIN AND I'LL SMACK YOU BOTH!" Sakura said. "Kiba will live, but he's not waking up and I want him seeing that popping lady—"

"It's Poppy," Sai corrected.

Sakura smacked him across the clearing.

-

"I don't like that guy..." Ron muttered, drinking his Butterbeer and watching the man named Sai as he doodled on some scroll. He had come inside of the house as if he _owned_ it! Plus...

"He seems fine to me," Hermione said idly. "He was very polite."

...Hermione just adored the guy.

"You're only saying that because he called you cute," the redhead said scathingly.

"...Are you calling me ugly?!"

"What? No! I'm just saying you're not—he's not—I, you... um..."

"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY...!"

Harry ignored the happy couple's argument, staring into the fireplace with a hot mug of Butterbeer in his hand. There was a slight creaking sound in the distance, as if someone—or a group of someones—were entering the house.

It was too quiet for Harry to have registered his attention, but he still instinctively looked at the doorway to see a flash of blond.

"...AND _HE_ IS A _GENTLEMAN_!"

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"

"Ron, Hermione!" Harry said.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, her momentary rage completely dissipated.

"Oh, so _now_ you're all sweetness and nice," Ron muttered under his breath. Hermione hit him in the head.

"You guys are going to think I'm crazy, but..." Harry's hushed voice trailed off.

"But what?" Ron asked, rubbing his sore head.

"I think—no, I'm _sure_ I saw Malfoy in the doorway," he whispered in a low voice to his friends.

"...Yeah, mate, you're right. We _do_ think you're crazy. I mean, sure, you were almost pretty definitely right about him trying to kill Dumbledore, being a Death Eater, bringing assassins into the school, and all that good stuff, but _Draco Malfoy_? _Here_? No way! It's impossible!"

"It's _improbable_," Hermione corrected. "He might actually be here..."

"_Why_?"

"Maybe he's stealing something. Or trying to kill someone," Harry said.

"Or get information," the bushy-haired witch said suspiciously. They all exchanged glances with one another and, as if on cue, they all pulled out their wands.

Creeping silently, they followed a faint creaking sound throughout the Burrow all the way to the kitchen.

One... two... three—

Harry, Hermione, and Ron jumped suddenly out with their wands pointed at the person in the kitchen.

Who wasn't really a person.

And was actually a werewolf.

"Oh my god!" Hermione said, backing away.

"Uh... Professor Lupin, is that you?" Harry asked, as all three of them quickly backed away from the werewolf.

Please let it be him, please let it be him, please let it be him...

Instead of attacking them as they had feared, the Golden Trio were relieved to find that the werewolf laid on its back. A gesture of peace. And, oddly enough, there were the words, written in thick black ink on his back, 'Reemus Lupen'.

"Professor Lupin! I didn't even realize it was a full moon tonight," Hermione said, looking out through the window.

Wait a minute... Remus hadn't rolled over onto his back.

He was _unconscious_.

"_Hogwarts!_" he heard someone shout. There was more shouting and several 'whooshes'.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron ran back to the living room with the fireplace to see the last few people leave. A pink haired girl, some slightly younger version of Kiba, and a blond man were leaving, carefully carrying a bloody, unconscious person.

"Wait!" Hermione said. They turned around, saw the trio, and hurried towards the fireplace, which was already clearly glowing green. "Injured people shouldn't travel through the Floo netwo—!"

They were already gone.

Hermione recovered from her shock and turned around to see Ron and Harry looking surprised as well.

"What is it?" she asked huffily, probably miffed that these people had ignored her advice and went through the Floo anyway.

"Wasn't that Kiba?" Harry said.

"I remember! That was the guy who invaded Hogwarts!" Ron shouted at the same time.

The room was completely silent, save for the steady dripping of ink dripping from a chair into a huge puddle on the floor.

"I'm confused," Ron said.

-

**Hogwarts**

"My companion was attacked by a werewolf."

"And I am sorry to hear that," Dumbledore said to Shikamaru. They were both seated in his office with warm tea before them, though neither drank. From the moment that Shikamaru had entered the office, dirty, limping, and smoking like a chimney, Dumbledore knew what to expect.

"I want compensation for his injuries."

More demands.

"And what is it that you would want?" Dumbledore asked him amiably. "I have promised you many things, but you have yet to completely succeed in any of the tasks assigned to you." He did regret holding one's dreams before a person to get them to do what he wanted, but...

The lives of seven children and a dog were nothing in comparison to the thousands of wizards who could profit from their presence in this world. He couldn't let them go home free just yet.

"You haven't given us any tasks," Shikamaru said in a calm yet accusing voice.

"I will," Dumbledore said. "I have given you jobs, a place of refuge, a new world to explore in, food, money... what more could you want?"

"You forced us to work under you and made our residence in your castle mandatory for whatever it was you are going to have us do. You know of our past, so you must know that we don't want another _new_ world to explore. We want our old one back. Food and money? We had that before you intruded upon our lives. Not a lot, I admit, but enough to make it by," he said. "We would have been able to live _securely _if you hadn't threatened to expose us to both Wizard and Muggle worlds. We would have been able to live without fearing that one day we'd walk into a store with money only to find weapons pointed in our direction. We would have continued taking new jobs without fearing that our clients would find out who and how old we really are and stop giving us assignments."

"You would not go through these worries time and time again if you had not tried to assassinate me in the first place," Dumbledore said.

"It was an assignment and a misunderstanding," Shikamaru said.

"One I'm willing to forgive but not overlook. You tried to kill me, you attacked students, and you trespassed on forbidden property. Regardless of how misunderstood you were, you must know killing is prohibited, as is stealing things that do not belong to you..."

"What we have done is not your business."

"It is if the Ministry of Magic decides to look in on your past records."

Shikamaru paused. "They won't look in on them if you don't tell them. And you don't need to."

"On the contrary... well, actually, I don't _need_ to tell them about you. I don't need to get involved with them. But _you_ may need to."

"And why would that be?"

"If your friend had, in fact, been attacked by a werewolf, there is slightly more than a ninety-eight percent chance that he has been infected with lycanthropy. There was only one case in which a person who had been bitten did not become a werewolf after being bitten, and that person died several days later because of a mix of the wolf's blood with his own, and I doubt that your friend was a vampire. The few two percent that don't become werewolves often die a few months to a year after. Also, Ministry law requires that all werewolves must be registered. Which means that your friend who was attacked must be carefully monitored on the night of a full moon by Ministry officials. Whether he becomes listed as an official werewolf or not, they will look into his records—blood relations, life history, purchases, and anything that they could find out about him."

Dumbledore watched Shikamaru as the young man struggled to find a solution. Both were completely aware of what would happen if the Ministry found out that Kiba, as well as the rest of them, didn't exist in either Muggle or magical worlds.

"And... if we don't tell the Ministry?" he said.

"The most immediate and important consequence would be that, with the high chances that your friend has contracted lycanthropy from the attack, you would not be able to receive legal access to the Wolfsbane potion, which will keep your friend sane during the transformation and prevent him from attacking everything in sight."

"Legal?"

"A potions master is only allowed to acquire the unique ingredients for the Wolfsbane if he has a special permit. The ingredients are extremely hard to come by legitimately, so only expert potions masters are allowed to purchase and use the certain ingredients. Hogwarts just so happens to have a potions master able to brew the potion. He went with your three friends to the wedding to meet with and give a friend of mine the potion that _he_ needed."

"Severus Snape?"

"Yes."

"...What else can result in keeping the werewolf attack a secret?"

"Well, you risk your friend attacking your other friends and spreading the curse. Should the Ministry find out, the werewolf would be confined—usually sent to Azkaban for an indefinite amount of time, unless you have special connections in the Ministry. The prison sentence varies with how long the werewolf had gone undiscovered, as well as how good his excuse for hiding from the Ministry is. Those who were aware of the werewolf would receive an extremely large fine, with the same variables as the discovered werewolf. They would also receive a few days in a prison depending on the circumstances. Not Azkaban, though."

"Azkaban?"

"A wizarding prison. It is maintained by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and is located on a small island far out in the icy waters of the North Sea. It's also called the Azkaban Fortress. It had previously been guarded by Dementors—creatures often described as 'sightless soul-sucking fiends'. They feed on positive emotions. There, prisoners lose all hope and all good feelings and thoughts—meaning that most wouldn't think of escaping, believing that escape was impossible. Prisoners are forced to relive the darkest, most horrible memories of their lives. Some go mad; luckier ones simply despair and die. Only one person has ever made a successful _recorded_ escape in history. Other wizards have managed to escape Azkaban as well, but only because during that time, the guards had released them and claimed that they had left."

"You said that... it had _previously_ been guarded by Dementors?"

"Dementors have revolted and joined Voldemort's forces, resulting in the escape of ten Death Eaters. I told you about them, right?"

"Yes," Shikamaru said. "Who guards Azkaban now?" he said quickly.

"It's probably members of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement—either those who used to only do paperwork or those who are extremely low on the totem pole in that department."

Shikamaru frowned. His eyes lit up slightly as he came up with a sudden revelation. "Maybe—"

"There are wards that mimic the presence of Dementors," Dumbledore said, interrupting Shikamaru before he would find too much hope in a pointless plan. It would be bad if the boy got too attached to a hopeless plan. "Though the wards are not as powerful as the real thing, prisoners forced to stay inside would be unable to believe escape to be within their reach. Wizards tend to have difficulty with change. They'd rather keep their 'Dementor-like' atmosphere, and even the Dementors' way of detecting everybody inside of the prison."

Shikamaru didn't say anything, probably desperately trying to think of a new way to help his friend escape exposure to the Ministry.

"You mentioned an escapee from Azkaban..." he said.

"Ah, Sirius Black..." Dumbledore felt saddened by the young man's hopeful look. "He is... you won't be able to find him."

"So he's dead," Shikamaru said slowly.

"His godson still lives," the headmaster said. "I suppose that once this war dies down, the Ministry would probably eventually fix their records and add a second name to the short list of escapees. Ironically, the second escapee also had a connection with the godson of the first escapee. And I know what your next inquiry will be, so before you waste your breath, I suppose I should mention that he has had his soul sucked out of him, randing him incapable of passing on any information on to you."

Shikamaru was silent for a moment. "Is there anything _else_ I should know?"

"Well... nothing major, I guess. I am hesitant to assist you and your companions in any shady dealings. Werewolves are often prejudiced against in wizard societies... They rarely have offspring. There were statistics. Five of seven are stillborns. Of the remaining general two, one will probably die early on. Because of this lowered ability to procreate, they aren't of much use to purebloods, in addition to the widespread fear of werewolves."

Shikamaru rested his forehead against his hands, his elbows on Dumbledore's desk.

"Tea?"

"_No thank you_," he said harshly.

"It has a Calming Draught in it."

Shikamaru looked at him warily.

"It's the truth this time." Dumbledore said, taking a sip from the cup himself as proof that it wasn't tainted with any sort of poison. Not that Shikamaru suspected Dumbledore of poisoning the drink. He just didn't _feel _like accepting the old man's hospitalities and peace offerings. On the other hand...

Regardless of his instincts to reject anything Dumbledore had to offer, he picked up the cup and proceeded to drained it of its contents.

"...I think better calm," he said defensively, seeing Dumbledore's politely raised eyebrows.

"Many do," Dumbledore said, nodding. "Just out of curiosity, which one of your friends—?"

"Kiba. The one with the dog."

"Ah, pity... the Diggories mentioned him to me previously in a letter," the old man said. "They like him. He reminds them of their son, Cedric. He died a while ago."

"Great," Shikamaru said, acting as though he didn't care.

But Dumbledore could see it in his eyes...

From what he could tell, out of the entire group, Shikamaru seemed to be the unofficial leader. He also seemed to be a genius, and had proven to be so when he had successfully evaded magical tracking methods that he had never even received solid information on..

That boy would come up with something. Dumbledore was sure of it. He might not have all the information, but he would take in everything he could grasp and use it to his own advantage. Dumbledore was secretly pleased that this boy was so sharp.

He wouldn't even have to give Shikamaru the entire plan that Dumbledore himself had already come up with upon learning of Kiba's recent 'infection'. All he would have to do is give out the smallest of details and let Shikamaru come up with the idea himself. It would be interesting to see whether the fellow genius would come up with the same plan to help his friend or if he would find something that Dumbledore had missed entirely.

Of course, Dumbledore had a century's worth of magical and historical knowledge, and Shikamaru a decidedly much less vast storage of information, so Dumbledore knew better to expect him to immediately come up with a plan.

Plus, Dumbledore had encountered an experience similar to this one just over thirty years ago.

"I'm going now," Shikamaru said, getting up.

"You are excused," Dumbledore said.

"You don't have the authority to excuse me."

'_Yes I do_.'

Dumbledore watched as the shinobi got up to his feet and dragged himself towards the door. "You're limping."

"That's what happens when you run around the country for two months, looking for a single, barely detectable scent," he said with a hint of anger and annoyance.

"I suggest all of your friends go to Poppy," the old man said. "You may spend the night in the infirmary. Poppy will keep all your secrets for now."

Shikamaru opened the door, but Dumbledore remembered something.

"Earlier," he said, "you mentioned that you wanted compensation for your friend's injuries..."

"...Will we receive any?"

"Perhaps you will someday," he said. "Rest assured that people always get what they deserve in the end. I am unsure as of right now who is in whose debt. I will contact a friend to judge for us. You could say...she is an expert when it comes to proper payment. If she considers you in my debt, you will work for me longer. And if I am in your debt, then yes. You will eventually receive proper compensation."

-

"What's going to happen to me?"

Shikamaru didn't look up. Instead, he climbed onto the infirmary bed closest to the window and collapsed on top of it with his lighter in hand, idly flipping it open and snapping it shut as he resisted the urge to put his hands together and move into his thinking position.

He didn't want to look as if he was in some sort of an impossible predicament, after all.

"Oi!" Kiba said, angrily. "Yo, fearless leader! What's going to happen to me?" he repeated.

"Shikamaru..." a hoarse yet wonderfully familiar voice croaked. Shikamaru looked up to see Ino sitting up in her bed, in her own body, looking rather thin, but otherwise fine.

"We all need a breather," Shikamaru said. "We have about a week until this school reopens. We'll just go on a little break. Relax a bit."

"I thought Dumbledore hired us for a job," Naruto said. "Shouldn't that decision be up to him?"

"...I'd like to pretend that I have at least _some_ say in these matters," the genius said. "But since you are all so eager to do work, study when you can. Our English is good. Learn magic."

"We know enough to pass as wizards," Ino said. "Now quit trying to throw us off. What's happening to Kiba?"

Shikamaru glared at him. "Nothing's happening to any of us," he said irritably.

"You've been grumpy lately. I think it's the smoking," Sakura said, glaring at the demonic cancer stick from behind a thick book.

"If you're looking for a poor hurt animal to heal, should I make one for you?" he asked. "Because if it'll stop your fussing about my habits, I'll gladly hurt something."

"Every cigarette you smoke takes five minutes off your life!" Sakura said loudly, pointing an accusing finger at Shikamaru.

"I'll be old and tired of life by the time I die then," Shikamaru said. "Leave me alone."

"Something wrong?" Ino asked.

"Yeah, the laziest ninja ends up working like a dog," he muttered.

Akamaru whined.

"Why, it looks like everyone's getting rather hostile. Who's going to die next?" Sai asked, seeming to almost purposely allow all anger be directed towards him. Whether this was deliberate or not, the world may never know.

"Shut up, Sai," everyone said, some of them throwing whatever was in their reach at him. Sai, being one of the few currently running at one hundred percent, having not gone on the trip himself, easily ducked beneath the lighter pieces of furniture and other debris.

"Now that everyone's gotten it out of our system... there's still one more important matter at hand," Sai said, looking almost _pleased_ with himself.

"And what's that?" Naruto asked.

Sai pointed in the direction of the muddy, disheveled wizard in the corner, sitting on a stool but still tied tightly enough to prevent escape.

"...Oh yeah," he said, laughing. "I totally forgot about him."

"And _why_ isn't he dead again?" Neji asked in a fake sounding voice.

"Because we've got issues," Ino said quickly before anyone could just go up and stab the kid where he sat.

"What do you mean by that?" Kiba said.

"...I'm just not letting you kill him," she said.

"Sorry, Ino, but he's got to die," the Inuzuka said.

Sakura frowned. "I usually don't make it a habit of taking in strays, but I don't think killing this guy really solves all our problems anyway," she said. The glint in her eye told everyone that she was going to fight down to the tooth and nail to stand by her best friend,

"And why not?" Sai asked.

"Because there _is_ no problem," she said simply.

All of the shinobi silently contemplated this.

"Think about it," Sakura said. "The kid is rich, he's got a whole manor to himself, he's got a lot of money, and—oh, did I mention?—he's _rich_."

"Parents?"

"Dead," Sakura said. "And people are after him now. Why do you think we had to run like the hounds of hell were at our heels?" she said to Kiba.

"Oh."

"He can't get the money though," Neji said. "He's poor. He can't gain access to the money because everybody believes him to be dead, except for those who hunt him and _want_ him dead."

"Well, whatever. But I don't think that Dumbledore would trap Ino in his body to force us to save the _both_ of them if he wanted the kid dead," Sakura said.

Everyone looked at Shikamaru for the final say, since it seemed from the expressions on everyone's faces that the vote was split in half between 'to kill' or 'not to kill'.

He frowned. "Fine," he said to Ino. "We can keep him."

-

(1) _Anya no jutsu _(Dark Night Technique): It's a new technique, best in combination with a lot of chakra and the night in general. Basically, Shikamaru takes in the shadows of everything he can come in contact with, make it some sort of huge blanket, and wraps the enemy up in it. ...Basically, it's like his shadow thread technique (Kage Nui), but instead, it's not sharp and it's a huge ball of shadow instead of threads of it.

-

**My Thinking Corner**

At the _very end_ of the previous chapter, I freaked out. It was that moment that I remembered that I didn't remember what the heck happened at weddings. And I was just at one last year. I've only been to two my entire life. One was when I was, like, five. Another just last summer. Around the end of the school year. Either way, after falling over, recovering from the fall, and freaking out, I went on the Internet and looked up weddings. I must say: THANK GOOGLE FOR WIKIPEDIA! Why thank Google? Because for me, it's the same thing as thanking god.

...By the way, just so you all know, I'm not serious. So please call off the nuns and the rulers. I like my fingers the way they are.

Anyway, I came back from vacation, and I'm looking at my yahoo thing, and I'm like, "HOLY COW, I'VE GOT 51 NEW MAIL TO LOOK AT AT 1:10 IN THE FREAKING MORNING!"

Have I mentioned how much I just love you guys?

And yes! I had Viktor call Sakura an animagus. I realized that while I was on vacation. I just woke up one night and was like, "Oh shit, she's not an metamorphmagus, but she's sure as hell in no way an animagus." Now that I have fixed that, the nightmares of my errors will cease to haunt me.

Oh, and before anyone comments on why Shikamaru didn't use an ordinary shadow bind, well, the more obvious reason would probably be

I saw the Chapter 347 of Naruto and I was like, HAAAAAAH! It's a team of pervs! HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!

Oh, this morning (3/29/07), I spent the morning staring at a magazine full of "J-rock" bands. Japanese rock musicians. Out of the whole magazine, there was only ONE girl. They all looked like chicks. And, in most of the cases, _they were hotter than the real thing_! -le gasp- It was so funny when a friend of mine was like, "She's hot", and the person who showed us the magazine was like, "No, HE'S hot." "Who's 'he'?" "The hot she." "_WHAT_?!"

Ah, those precious moments.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Rescue Mission

_Flashback Chapter_

**The Train from Hogwarts to the King's Cross**

"...And the next thing I know, I'm in that doddering fool's office!" Malfoy said to Crabbe and Goyle on the train ride home. "I don't even remember stepping inside!"

"But... Malfoy," Crabbe said, managing to twist his face into what almost looked like a concerned expression. "We remember you going to his office."

"Maybe..." Goyle said.

"I'm not crazy!" Draco said angrily.

"I wasn't going to say that," Goyle said, pausing for a whole minute to come up with a replacement word. "I was going to say that maybe something happened in his office..."

"You're damn right!" the blond said crossly. "That's what I've been _saying_!"

"_Or_," Theodore Nott said smartly, standing in the doorway of the train compartment, "maybe you're just _losing it_."

"Say that again?" Draco said slowly, as if he hadn't heard what the black boy had said.

"_Maybe_, you really are going crazy. Cracking under the stress. Headed for the St. Mungo's loony bin with Longbottom's loony parents. Such a shame. Looks like your mother's going to be all alone from now—"

"_Stupefy_!" Draco shot a red beam of light that hit the wall of the train and disappeared harmlessly. Though it was merely a warning shot, Theodore immediately returned the attack.

"_Expelliarmus_!" the boy said coolly, with a deliberate intent on landing a hit on Malfoy.

Malfoy froze up, knowing instinctively that the spell was going to come and that he couldn't possibly react fast enough to get out of its path. Yet, his body seemed to move on its own with lightning fast reflexes.

He jumped to the side, lightly landing on the seats, only to smoothly push off against the side of the train and tackle Theodore Nott, tearing at him like a girl in a catfight.

"Ow! You—ah! _Crazy bast_—AAAAAAAARGH! ..._d._"

The next thing Malfoy knew, Crabbe and Goyle were pulling him off of Nott, both looking pale and surprised.

"You!" Theodore said angrily, clutching a bloody nose with one hand and covering trails of scratches on his brows. "You don't even fight like a _witch_! You fight like a bloody little Mudblood girl!"

"And you..." another voice said. They all turned around to find Blaise Zabini, leaning against the doorway where Nott had previously stood before he and Malfoy started fighting. "...You got beat up by a wizard fighting like a 'bloody little Mudblood girl'..."

"Stay out of this, Zabini!" Nott said, turning red.

"Don't you tell _me_ to shut up," Zabini said with a nasty smirk. "I outrank _all_ of you. Plus _you_ got beat up like a Mudblood _boy_. I'm just saying it like it is..."

Nott spluttered angrily and, after getting to his feet and regaining his balance, he stormed out of the room.

"Well _that_ was quite amusing," Blaise said with a smirk, though the smile never met his eyes.

"Depends on what you mean by amusing," Malfoy said sullenly.

He disliked the black boy. Ever since Malfoy had even stepped on the train to Hogwarts in his first year, he had dominated the Slytherins of his year. He had reached the pinnacle of his success—his 'reign'—at the beginning of this year, when he was able to proudly say that the Dark Lord had hand chosen him to be Albus Dumbledore's death.

And slowly, with every failed attempt followed by another, he slowly began to realize his reign as the 'prince of Slytherin' was soon coming to an end. His life at Hogwarts was crumbling all around him. Pansy thought he was crazy, his father was in Azkaban, Crabbe and Goyle were all the friends, if not just plain supporters, that he had left (though he _was_ somewhat grateful), and, oh yeah, the Dark Lord was going to kill the broken pieces of what had been his family.

And, with the end of Malfoy's rule started another. Blaise Zabini was now the student 'head' of Slytherin. The one who made all the jokes that his housemates would sycophantly laugh at.

"Amusing as in seeing Nott getting his hair pulled out and him yelping like a kicked puppy," Zabini said with a smirk that reminded Malfoy infuriatingly of himself.

"Why are you here anyway?" he asked, feeling annoyed with the rival who no longer considered him a rival.

"I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with you and your friends," Zabini said as he pulled out his wand and wordlessly waved it, casting a silent Impertubable Charm.

Another thing that Draco despised about Zabini.

He didn't rely on any connections to succeed and, instead, used his talents. Several talents that Draco himself didn't have.

Once the room was secure, Zabini pulled out one of the 'Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes' brand 'Extendable Ears'. Draco raised his brows in surprise.

"Oh, don't tell me you haven't bought any of their stuff," Blaise said, grinning at Malfoy's surprise. "The Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes is one of the biggest markets of pranking equipment and even defense supplies. Almost everyone in Slytherin uses them too—though nobody's admitting it."

"So what?"

"Fine, fine, straight to business then," Zabini said, pocketing the flesh-colored tendrils. All traces of his fake smile disappeared. "...The Dark Lord is not happy."

"He already knows?" Malfoy said fearfully.

"He will when I tell him," Blaise said.

'_Then don't_,' Draco wanted to say, though he knew all pleas would go ignored. It wasn't that Blaise was cold enough to brush him off so easily, though he probably could, but... no one would ever dare stand against the Dark Lord in fear of the prolonged painful death that was sure to follow.

"So what then?" Draco said stonily. "He'll kill me. There's no real point in coming here to rub it in my face. I don't—"

"You say you don't care and I will laugh myself to death," Zabini said. It must've been a joke within a joke. Zabini never laughed. Or smiled. Not a real one... Not a loud real one anyway, and certainly not one hard enough to die from. "You _definitely _care. And if not about your own life, then the lives' of your mother and father's. Or else you wouldn't have struggled so hard in the end."

"You remember?" Draco said, referring to the night that everyone had mysteriously forgotten.

"When I wake up in the middle of the night to hear Potter's voice of all people, shouting something about a break-in all the way up on the top floor of the castle... I'm not going to forget. You sent those guys as a last resort, right?"

"...Yeah," Draco admitted reluctantly.

Zabini suddenly groaned and smacked his forehead. "The Eight—"

"Seven," he corrected. "They're changing to Shichifukujin. Something about seven lucky gods."

"Fine, the Seven L—wait, Seven?"

"One of them is gone. Wait, how do _you_ know about them?"

"How do _you_? Answer my question and I'll answer yours."

"My mother mentioned them in passing," Draco said.

"Ah-hah... that's where you went wrong," Zabini said with a knowing look on his face. Draco wanted to yell at him. What on earth did he mean by that? "You got information from an emotionally and mentally distraught woman. No offense, Draco Malfoy, but your mother is definitely not thinking straight if she thought that this group, of all groups, would solve all your problems."

"What do you mean by that?" Draco demanded.

"I had thought you heard about them among the Death Eaters. There are a lot of rumors flying around there..." he said, probably purposely goading Malfoy about the fact that Malfoy rarely wanted to and/or was able to walk amongst Voldemort's Inner Circle of Death Eaters. "We have an organization working for the Dark Lord. They're quite good. They've been keeping tabs on our 'Seven'.

"Did you know that The Seven... 'Whatevers' are mostly about our ages?" Zabini asked in a condescending tone. "The youngest is about nineteen. The oldest is, at most, in his mid-twenties."

"But they didn't look—"

"They aren't wizards," he continued. "And we don't know how they do it, but they can manage to cast illusions as well. Did you know _that_? They aren't wizards. They aren't Muggles. They aren't magical beasts. So what are they? Do you know? That's a rhetorical question, by the way. I've heard this information from the lower ranking Death Eaters who got it from the Inner Circle who said that the Dark Lord mentioned things like this in passing. And the Dark Lord got this information from the Red Moon."

"I've never heard of them," Draco argued.

"Yes. And _that's_ how good they are," Zabini said. "They can outdo the Seven like the Firebolt outstrips the Cleansweeps. They're so good, you don't even hear of them. I hear that the only reason the _Dark Lord_ heard of them was because he had something valuable of theirs and they wanted it back."

"Money?"

"No. I heard it was a _severed head_. One that talked. That it was alive. ...I also heard that it looked like Lucius when he was younger. Or _you_, if you ever get to that age," Zabini said. "But... these guys... 'The Seven'... well, we might never know who's _actually_ better... I personally think that the Red Moon could take them apart, but... we're talking about two different groups. Like comparing a kappa to a grindylow. They seem similar, but you can never really tell who'd top another in an encounter since they're so different."

"Aren't they actually _alike_?"

"They're not the same thing. You see, Malfoy, that's where you went wrong. You didn't do your research. The _Red Moon_ specializes in _assassinations_. And they aren't quiet about it. You heard about all the recent deaths. That was them. They don't get caught, and if someone sees them, they don't live to tell tale. But even with their ability to remain hidden, but you don't need to have them in your lap to know that they exist. You never see them, but they sure as hell do leave pretty obvious signs.

"The Seven, on the other hand... they don't specialize in assassinations. They barely specialize in anything at all. They could definitely kill people. They don't leave obvious signs. They don't get caught. The reason why we might even have information on them in the first place might be because they _need_ to be known, or else they don't have any business—which separates the two groups a little bit. First of all, the Red Moon works solely for the Dark Lord, so they're rarely in need of funds and equipment. The Seven have no such benefactor and rely on their own skills to get the things they need. Second, the Red Moon have no qualms when it comes to killing people and taking money. And as far as we know, the Seven avoids that kind of stuff and stuck to generally legal jobs. ...Aside from the mercenary jobs, of course. Obviously, those were _definitely _illegal.

"The thing is, where the Seven is much vaguer, they have extremely various, useful, and _powerful_ talents. All of them are capable of murder, but all of their 'talents' could be used for different things. One of them is capable of knowing everything. It's vague, but there isn't too much information I could find about that guy."

Draco suddenly remembered the man with the eyeless mask. He... the Surveillance guy... It wasn't technology or magic. It was his own ability?

"Another can make copies of himself. There's one who can heal and is extremely destructive. Another manipulates shadows. There's even another—much handier than powerful—who can tap into a person's mind," Blaise said, listing the few various facts he had been able to gather from rumors.

Malfoy shuddered.

"One more thing... They don't take jobs against those who can threaten their existence. The rich and famous. And _you_ set them against _Dumbledore_. You had them perform an assignment that they would never have under normal circumstances. So I can assume that you either got enough information on them to blackmail them or you just plain lied. And since you barely seem to know as much as I do about them and their abilities, I can definitely assume that you _lied_ to a bunch of _potentially psychotic and psychopathic mass murderers_."

He winced, but waited for Zabini to continue talking.

"The Dark Lord _will_ kill you. You want to know a secret?" he asked. "_He _never thought you were able to succeed in killing Dumbledore in the first place. Metaphorically speaking, he took your wand, filled the room with straw, and told you to turn it into gold... _with _the knowledge that you couldn't possibly succeed. You almost did it too. But he's wanted you dead for a very long time..."

"So... even if I killed Dumbledore, he—"

"He would have killed you regardless of whether you had successfully completed the mission or not."

Draco couldn't move. He was screwed. He was _so_... _totally_... _screwed_.

And feeling rather sympathetic towards himself as well, for some odd reason.

Self-pity was one thing. Self-sympathy was another.

"So let's look at it from a calm person's perspective. You're in deep trouble. The Dark Lord wants you dead. He'll probably send Death Eaters after you. And if the Death Eaters don't succeed in capturing and killing you, then he'll send in the Red Moon so that you do not leak out any information to anyone dangerous to his plans. Now, on the other hand... you have the Seven, who—no doubt—are after you at this _very moment_. Who knows, maybe one is _in this room_. They're less deadly and more hesitant to kill a person, but, let's face it, they're good. Second best, I guess. You have the Dark Lord, possibly the Red Moon, _and_ the Seven after you. Do you realize how deep you've gotten? The water is rather dark."

"_I know_," Draco said, gritting his teeth at the thought of his imminent death. "What do you _expect_ me to do about it? I told you before, there's no point in telling me all of this rubbish if I'm going to die anyway!"

"I'm not here to talk about how you're going to die. I have no doubt that you know what the most likely outcome of your actions are. It's time for you to pull out."

"_What?_"

"Go back to shore. Withdraw your forces. Leave."

"You want me to run away," Draco said bluntly. He paused, staring at Zabini as if he were stupid. "_I want to run away too_. And I _would,_ but if _everyone _wants me _dead_, it doesn't really matter too much, does it? They'll track me down and _kill_ me."

"If you play your cards right, the 'they' might be narrowed down to 'he'," Zabini said. "Find the Seven. Apologize to them. No... wait, don't apologize. They might be a touch bit more forgiving, considering their age and possibly naivety, but don't count on that possibility alone. You might have just killed them off or gotten them in huge trouble. Don't apologize. Beg them, bribe them, work for them. Don't even bother trying to win their hearts. Forget their heart. You want to win their _support_."

"What does it matter?" Draco said, recovering from a brief moment of irritation at the word 'naivety'. "You said that they don't hold a candle against the Red Moon!"

"They don't. I don't think they do," he said. "But the Seven are the Red Moon's greatest potential enemies. If there's anyone able to stop them, it would be the Seven. You can win support by giving the Seven information. Some of the rumors are wrong. I know that for a _fact_. There is a genius among them. A genius doesn't value money as much as he values valuable information. The Seven are completely unaware of the Red Moon. Warn them and hope that they'll take you in. If they like the information you tell them enough, they'll probably do _something_ for you. I hear they're big on debts and stuff like that.

"And yes, in a direct fight, the Red Moon could beat the Seven in an instant, but that's only because only one is aware of the presence of the other. The Seven doesn't know about the Red Moon, keeping the balance in the Red's favor. The only reason why they are still alive is that they are _just_ good enough in covering their tracks that, even though you can find information _about_ them, you can't find _them_. Not unless they want to be found."

Sweet relief. He didn't have to die. He didn't need to lose his mother and father. "But... what if they don't want to be found?" Draco said.

"You think I haven't thought of that?" Zabini said. "You won't find them. They _don't_ want to be found. You're right. But _they _want to find _you_. Just stay on alert. Stay alive long enough to explain your situation to them."

"You really think that the Seven would help?" Goyle asked Zabini. Malfoy turned to Crabbe and Goyle, having forgotten they were there in the first place. He was surprised that they were able to even keep up with the conversation. Miracles do happen. "You think they'd be able to protect Malfoy better than us?"

Malfoy wasn't sure whether Crabbe and Goyle were hopeful that Malfoy would live or offended that they weren't considered good enough protection.

"Of course," Zabini said. "You work for Voldemort. You'll probably be the ones to kill him."

No one said anything.

"Why are you helping me anyway?" Malfoy said.

Zabini laughed. A real one. "No idea," he said. "I guess I like you. You're a coward and you're kinda pathetic. ...The epitome of the Slytherin house, I guess."

"So what, you're saying you belong in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw or something?" Malfoy said, half-jokingly, but still somewhat serious.

"Nah. If I was in your place, I'd be quivering in my boots," Zabini said, flashing a grin in Malfoy's direction. "Besides, if Potter really is the 'Chosen One'... If he is the only one able to beat the Dark Lord, I suggest you help him as much as possible, because the Light side needs all the help they can get. If you join the Light _and_ get the support of the Seven, well... that's a total of seven and a half for the Light, right?"

"...Why am I a half?" Draco said, somewhat offended. But he was still relieved. Relieved and thankful.

"Think of it like this. I'm considering you a half until you help the Light win this war," Zabini said.

"...And you're only helping me so I could help the Light win? ...Why do you want them to win?"

"Can you imagine what it'd be like with the Dark Lord in charge? _Quidditch_ will _never_ be the same... Plus, once the mudbloods are all gone, he'll probably go after black people next," Blaise said, only half joking and holding up his hand as if to display his dark skin. "The Light might be full of self-righteous Gryffindors, but at least those disgustingly honest idiots don't spend their time plotting against the world or each other. Plus, I like you. Only because you're my rival. If you were anything but, I wouldn't give a flying fuck as to whether the Dark Lord killed you or not."

"If you haven't noticed, I've already lost. Any rivalry we've had for top dog in the Slytherin house is completely over."

"Well, now that you've given up, I can _definitely_ say that I've won. Awesome," Zabini said. He frowned. "One more thing..."

"What is it?" Draco asked.

"If you see a woman who looks like your mother... _especially_ if it's your mother... run away. If you see Death Eaters, you need to run. And if you see your father... I mean, thinking about it logically, he should be in Azkaban anyway, but if you see a man who looks even _remotely_ like your father, then get the hell away from him. _Run. Away_. Find the Seven as soon as possible, and I seriously mean it."

"Wait, what about my mother? Won't she pick me up?" Draco said.

"Malfoy...when was the last time your mother responded to your letters?" Zabini said seriously.

Then it hit him.

"...She's dead," he said blankly.

"For two weeks now. Even before your last attempt on Dumbledore's life, Death Eater's killed her," Zabini said.

"I... she's really—?"

"Doesn't matter, the train ride is almost over," Zabini said as they pulled into King's Cross and the train slowed down to a stop. "Remember, the moment you get off the train, go find the Seven. Use your broom if you have to, but don't let yourself get caught by _anyone_. One last thing..."

"What...?" Draco said, dazed and stunned.

"Obliviate me."

"_What_?"

"I told you my plans that are now your plans. I know your plans and what you're going to do. Erase your tracks. If you don't use the Memory Charm, I'm going to blab to the Dark Lord and get you killed. In fact, Crabbe and Goyle too."

"There's always a three in five chance that a Memory charm goes wrong and backfires on you..." Draco said.

"Then I won't be ratting you out either way, right?" Zabini said. Malfoy didn't say anything.

"Zabini..." Malfoy said, raising his wand. He looked for something meaningful to say. Perhaps some fitting last words for his childhood friend, best friend, and rival to never remember. "You...you should've been in Hufflepuff."

"HEY...!"

"_Obliviate_!"

-

Three memory charms later, Draco left the train compartment with Zabini, Crabbe, and Goyle inside, unconscious. They'd wake up soon, hopefully. He scanned the crowd of wizards, keeping an eye out for anyone keeping an eye on him.

'_Ten o'clock..._'

Draco turned his head slightly to see a blond man with his hair sleeked back, similar to Draco's own. He felt a strong feeling of hatred and fear rising in his stomach and was surprised about this strange feeling that was not his own. This man resembled his father and himself. Why did he dislike this man so much?

Still, Draco took a few steps forward.

The man watched him.

He took a few steps backwards.

He suddenly remembered Zabini's words. "_And if you see your father... I mean, thinking about it logically, he should be in Azkaban anyway, but if you see a man who looks even _remotely _like your father, then get the hell away from him. _Run. Away."

Zabini was right. His father was dead. Dead or in Azkaban. Either way, this person could not possibly him. Plus, his instincts were screaming, and something was rather _off_ about his appearance. His clean-cut appearance, his trimmed hair (which actually resembled Draco's hair more than his father's from when was in Azkaban), and the uncharacteristically malicious gleam in his eyes...

The man kept those eyes on Draco, as well as some strangers in the crowd, who were confused by his strange antics as he had walked forward and backward several paces.

Finally, his mind was finally able to snap back into place, grasping the situation in hand.

'_Run...!_'

He obeyed the little voice in the back of his head and ran out of the train station as quickly as possible. He no longer saw the blond man, but, for some reason, he couldn't shake off the feeling that he was still being watched.

"Hey, are you okay, kid?" a Muggle man said to him, probably one of platform ushers. Draco ignored the man and ran past him and onto the train. "Hey, you can't just g—"

"Yes!" Draco hissed as the train began to move. He was getting away, he was getting awa—

Malfoy realized in horror that he couldn't move. No, not that he couldn't move... that his body was forcibly moving on his own. His own legs were directing him towards the empty seats nearby. But, as soon as he realized that his body was moving on its own, the mysterious force stopped controlling him.

Definitely not the Imperius Curse, but...

What was it if not first most troublesome of all three Unforgivables?

Of course, if it _was _the Imperius Curse, then the fact that he had thrown it off so easily meant that either he had gotten much better at repelling the curse overnight or the spell caster was pathetic. Malfoy closed his eyes and let out a deep breath.

To meet with the Seven, he had Flooed from the Slytherin Common room to some abandoned building. He no longer had a convenient fireplace handy, and to Apparate from King's Cross all the way to Toyohashi would be impossible. At that kind of distance, it would be best left to the experts. He'd be lucky to get a single _eyeball_ there. Perhaps he could Apparate several times in succession. It was exhausting to do so, but perhaps easier than train hopping to a series of islands. And less impossible.

He'd just need to get his hands on a map and pinpoint his destination. Malfoy clutched the narrow piece of wood in his pockets.

'This shouldn't be hard...' he thought, desperately trying to convince himself that his whole mission wasn't impossible. 'I mean... these guys are M—...practically Muggles. How hard could it be to find them?'

-

**Still at King's Cross**

"I think he's got something!" Naruto said excitedly, watching as Akamaru sniffed around the station.

"Excuse me, sir," one of the employees at the King's Cross said, approaching the group. "What business do you have here?"

"_Quiet_," Shikamaru said in a low voice. "We are a part of England's detectors. We're here with our hound sniffing out explosives. We received a tip earlier this morning that there was a possible terrorist attack in the area."

"Terrorist?"

"Yes, terrorist," he said. "As in guns and bombs, right? Are you _slow_? Renge, show him your ID."

Sakura stepped forward, glancing at the man through her dark sunglasses and pulled out a blank plastic card, showing it to the man. It may have been a plain piece of plastic, but it was apparently a convincing one.

"Wait a minute..." the man said, falling for the genjutsu. Sakura paused, unsure whether her English version of identification was accurate or not.

"...The girl in the picture has _brown _hair!"

She stared at him. "Do you honestly think that my hair is a natural _pink_?" she said with a look of derision on her face. "Amateurs... we're here under_cover_. As in _incognito_. Do you _want_ people to panic and accidentally set off bombs? No. We are _specialists_, sir, and you'll do well to stay out of our way. And don't bother mentioning it to your co-workers. The only person aware of today's alert is Mr. Richard Arrances—the head of the Department of Transportation—and everyone working _above_ him. His number can be reached at seven-four-three, eight-three-two, two-five-two-five, though you'll probably be on hold for a long time until you get to actually speak to him. Mr. Arrances is a very busy man, you know. Now, if you _please_..." she said, 'gently' moving him aside and amazing him with her subtle show of strength, "Pochi-kun has a lead."

"_A lead_?!"

"Do you have hearing problems?" she said angrily, grabbing the man by the chin. "_Don't_. Scare. Civilians."

'Pochi-kun' whined and started moving more quickly. All of the shinobi froze, hearing the closest train whistle as it began to depart from the station.

"Hey! You can't just go on without a ticke—HEY!"

Another worker at the station shouted and made a half-hearted attempt to chase after a blond boy wearing either dark robes or a long coat.

"...Hey," Naruto said. "...Is it just me, or is that guy the one we're after _and_ getting away?"

"Dammit!" Shikamaru said as they all began running as quickly as possible after the train. They all casted a quick notice-me-not technique and began running at an inhuman speed. "Somebody figure out where that train is headed!"

Though they would have probably been able to catch up if they tried hard enough, the steady pace of a tireless machine would eventually easily outrace the shinobi. Plus, even though the shinobi could, if they were lucky (which they rarely were), move more quickly than a train at a sprint, they would have to begrudgingly admit that none of them were as in shape as they used to be.

"Week one..." Sakura panted as they slowed down to a walking speed on the train tracks, some miles from the train station, "...over."

"Until September," Shikamaru said, looking quite horrified by how long this might take.

"...On the bright side," Naruto said as he masked his despair. "...At least by the time we catch Ino and Akui... we'll have had a good work out."

"Oh joy," the genius muttered sarcastically as they all watched the train lengthen the gap between them and Malfoy.

And so the chase began.

-

They were _following_ him!

Draco was sure of it. It had been over a week now that he had been wandering around on trains. They were somewhere nearby. It had been almost a week since he had fled the Hogwarts Express, and he had hardly any time to get away.

Just when did these people ever rest?!

They were far too persistent. These strangers followed him around almost around the hour. He wasn't even able to leave the train stations he passed through. From what he could guess, they were somehow able to track him down and keep up with the train, though they couldn't actually catch up to it.

Whoever these people were, they didn't seem to be using magic. Was it the rumored 'Red Moon' that Zabini had told him earlier about?

There was never any time for him to leave the station for the safety of the Floo network, which was rarely tracked without an official Ministry notice. Laws to protect the wizard citizens prevented such things. Every time he attempted to leave the safety of the train station, his heart would begin racing and he would feel the urge to avoid leaving the station.

He couldn't tell whether this strange instinct was a good thing or a bad thing.

He slept on the trains as they went from station to station, but he would often wake up to find himself in a different place. A different train and different station. And he would sometimes even wake up with a bag full of clothes, money, or food. For a while, he had believed that someone had been following him as well, helping him. However, he was never able to find any signs of this strange and mysterious benefactor.

But sometimes he would wake up to find himself already walking around. At one particular occasion, he had strange Muggle currency in his hand and was leaving the bathroom with several unconscious people inside. Incidents like these really explained the occasional bruises and the duffel bag that read 'Allen L. Hale' on the name tag. As well as the clothing inside.

Of course, whatever force that was using his body when his guard was down actually rather frightened him sometimes. He would sometimes receive the strangest reaction to certain things. An annoyance towards the overweight was almost normal for him, though now, it felt slightly _off._

Fat Muggles, maybe, but sometimes he would see one who was obviously a slightly portly wizard and then a strong feeling of reproach for said wizard. And the strong distaste for sweets? It was insane! He loved sweets! His mother used to send them to him all the time during school!

Plus, there was the slightly indifferent feeling towards his family. Whatever sadness he felt for his mother and father, who were almost definitely dead by now, seemed rather dull. At first, Malfoy thought it had been his own need to live. Run first, mourn later, right? But soon, he realized that he felt _sympathy_ for himself. It didn't feel quite the same as self-pity. Instead, it was like he was almost viewing himself from two points of views—his own and a stranger's. He felt partly upset that he was the last of the Malfoy lineage, but he also felt only sympathetic that he had lost his family.

Sympathetic? His family was dead and he was, not sad but... _sympathetic_?

This wasn't normal!

Yet, it never occurred to Draco that he was sharing his feelings with another person. He wasn't the sharpest crayon in the box.

...Genetics saw to that one.

Of course, there were some feelings that he _could_ explain, but not completely.

The rush of adrenaline he received when outside and the racing hearts—something was up. Was it a good thing or a bad thing?

Not that it mattered.

The burden left his shoulders on the seventh day of running from the unseen dangers.

Draco, once again, boarded another train and waited quietly as the door began to shut. Muggles stared at him as if _he_ were the freak. True, his clothes were slightly wrinkled and he was a bit untidy. After all, a week without being able to _properly_ groom oneself... Draco was almost as disgusted with himself as much as he was by the fact that he was surrounded by _Muggles_.

'Ugh...' Draco Malfoy groaned, taking a seat next to a brown haired passenger. 'I want to take a nice long bath...'

He was surrounded by Muggles, hungry, tired, achy, and in dire need of a nice long soak.

The only thing that kept him from becoming a raving lunatic was his desperate grasp on his self-preservation. Drawing such attention to himself could draw the Red Moon group right to him.

Still...

...He needed a bath.

Even the man next to him covered his nose.

And, due to his usual moodswings, Draco shot straight up from his seat and headed towards the bathroom. His limbs were moving on his own again... This was the strongest 'impulse' he had consciously received since the day he had attacked Nott. His first reaction was to fight this feeling, but still, it might be a bit helpful to wash up a little.

He really felt disgusting.

Draco opened the door to find someone already in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet with a bottle of some questionable liquid in hand.

"Uh..."

"_Dude_," the blond man said looking at Draco with a raised brow.

"...Sorry," Malfoy said backing away so he could close the door. "Just, uh... continue what you're doing."

"Oh, I'm not doing anything," the man said, getting up off the seat and approaching Malfoy. Ah, there went that heartbeat thing. His body was still slightly moving on its own, and since it usually seemed to instinctively protect himself _extremely well_, he decided to let his body react on its own.

However, instead of attacking or running away, he stood completely still.

"...This is for you anyway," the man said.

Run, run, run!

But he fought with his impulse and hesitated for a split second—which was all the blond man needed to grab Draco by the front of the shirt and yank him into the bathroom with him.

The man locked the door.

"Wh-what do you want with me?" Draco demanded, having already overcome whatever it was controlling his movements. He readied himself, prepared to pull out his wand and take the man by surprise.

"I don't want to have anything to do with _you_," the man said, shrugging. "It's my friend I'm looking for."

"Well you aren't going to find him!" he said, pulling out his wand, only to find...

It was gone!

"Were you going to fight me with this?" the man said, tossing a wooden stick up and down.

"That's mine!" Draco said, grabbing for his stolen wand.

"Nah-ah-aaah... I remember what you did with the wand before..." the man said. "Back in Toyohashi..."

Draco paused and took a step back, leaning against the wall. "It's _you_," he said breathlessly.

Oh crap, oh crap, oh freaking crap...

"I...I need your help!" Draco shouted, closing his eyes. "Ple—!"

Instead of even letting Draco finish his sentence, the blond man rolled his eyes and rammed the potion's bottle into his mouth, effectively shutting him up and forcing its contents down his throat at the same time.

"I'll leave it to Ino to explain things to me..." the blond man said as Draco began to feel nauseous and lose control of his body once again.

'What's...going...on...?' he thought.

"Good _god_, Naruto, it _took _you long enough," he heard himself say to the blond man.

-

"Good god, Naruto, it took you long enough," Ino complained, giving Naruto her best glare.

"Heya, Ino, it's _so_ nice to have you back with us," Naruto said sarcastically.

"It's nice to not be _in_ the back," she muttered. "I've been hanging around in the back of his mind for a _week_. I've only been able to come out while he sleeps. Or when he's _really_ tired. Or when his defense is down." She shook her head as both of them started leaving the bathroom. "I bet if his mental defense was just a _bit_ weaker, it would have been a lot easier for the _both_ of us... Hi, Akamaru!" she said, scratching the brown-haired man behind the ears. The Kiba-lookalike's shoulders hunched slightly, and he made a small whining noise.

They ignored the strange stares they received as the rest of the group slowly occupied the seats around Naruto, Ino/Malfoy, and Akamaru.

"I don't think it was his mind's fault," Naruto said. "Anyway, Shikamaru had said that Dumbledore said that this potion would cure you."

"..._Dumbledore_ said that?" Ino repeated angrily. "He told you that?"

There was a nagging voice in the back of her head.

"Yeah," Naruto said, confused. "Why?"

"He's the reason why I was stuck in this body in the first place!" Ino said angrily.

"_What_?" everyone said.

"_Yeah_," Shikamaru and Ino said at the same time. Ino stared at Shikamaru.

"You knew!" Ino exclaimed.

"Of course. It's all common sense," Shikamaru said. "You've never had any problems possessing him before, and then Dumbledore later tells me that you are stuck in another person's body and just so happens to have the antidote, ready and brewed, to give to me so I can administer it to you. Much too convenient, right? He knew you were stuck in the body of a wanted individual and he, coincidentally, had the correct potion handy for such a situation."

"Okay, that's believable," Ino said slowly. "But...let me get this straight, Dumbledore told you where I was, he gave you the potion, he gave you money, and he gave you information."

"Plus a new job," Naruto said.

Ino looked alarmed at this and Sakura frowned, suddenly understanding what her friend was implying.

"Shikamaru, what did Dumbledore want in return for everything he gave us?"

The leader of the group paused. "I offered him our services for a year."

"From what I've learned from the back of Malfoy's mind, Dumbledore isn't that kind and giving. Not to his enemies. And he isn't a fool either. He has to know that it was us who attacked Hogwarts. He'd have to be an idiot not to know. And since we've attacked them once, we can do it again, which means that he needs something valuable of ours or something to keep us in our place. What did you give Dumbledore?"

"I didn't give him anything," Shikamaru said. "Unless you think that Dumbledore is the Devil and that I sold my soul to him..."

"_Shikamaru_!" Ino said angrily, shooting up out of her seat and attracting the attention of many fellow passengers. "_What are _you people_ looking at_?" she asked them angrily in English. Many people looked away, some of them looking quite annoyed.

Ino probably would have continued berating Shikamaru if it hadn't been for the giant beige colored spider that jumped inside through one of the many open windows from the bus.

Naruto and Sakura stared at the spider in horror.

"Isn't that a clay...?" Sakura said, her voice trailing off.

"I... remember that thing," Naruto whispered in a low voice.

"What is—?"

He didn't wait for Shikamaru to finish his question and instead—tossing all need for secrecy out the window—he lunged at the shoe-sized spider with a swirling blue Rasengan in hand. Shikamaru's first response when the clay spider tore apart into tiny pieces was that the attack was just plain overkill. Plus, they were in public.

"Naruto, you idi...uh...t..." Ino said, her voice trailing off as well as dozens of spiders began crawling inside the train. "Shi...kamaru..." she said breathlessly.

"_Get out_!" Sakura cried out in English. "Everyone, out, _out_, _OUT_!" One by one, each and every single spider began latching themselves onto people. Naruto's eyes widened as one jumped directly onto his face.

Frantically waving his arms, he instinctively formed a Rasengan in his fist. Luckily, it was smaller and weaker than most, as he used his signature attack to blow the spider off his face. Naruto was much luckier than the civilians, who were all screaming as heads, limbs, and torsos were blown apart.

"Oh god—" Sakura said, about to run forward to heal the survivors when Shikamaru held an arm in front of the medic-nin.

"Don't," he said.

"People are hurt!"

"Don't care."

"I'm a medic! It's my ethical responsibility to heal any civilian or ally injured yet within my capability of healing!"

"You're _our_ medic, and if we _all_ get hurt, the rest of _us_ would _stay_ hurt because every _stranger _you heal wastes energy that could be spent on _our _wounds_," _Shikamaru said. "The train is already in motion, so I am assuming that our attacker is a—"

"Long-distance fighter, yeah, yeah, I know," Naruto said quickly. "I remember this from home. Deidara, formerly of the Stone Village. He makes clay animals from his hands, which have mouths on him. He's the one who fought and beat Gaara. Not the best taijutsu user, but his long range attacks are strong. And he's not the _smartest_ guy, but he's not really an idiot, I guess. The mind of an average shinobi. Just with a lot of superior strategic skills, or else he never would've been able to beat Gaara."

"The reason why he could probably keep up with the train is probably because he made some sort of huge clay bird thing," Sakura said.

Naruto combed his memory for Kakashi's steps onto how to defeat a long-range combat type...

-

"_Listen to me, Naruto, you're not used to fighting this type of opponent. You're good at close-quarters combat, and he's your worst possible match-up, a long-range combat type. There's only two ways of defeating this type of enemy..."_

_Kakashi paused dramatically. _

"_...WELL?" Naruto said, feeling annoyed. "And just what are they?"_

"_One way," his teacher said, "is to bring your opponent into close-quarters combat... The other is to beat him at his own game."_

-

"...You remember anything yet?" Shikamaru said irately.

"Um... no. Hold on..."

-

"_But how?"_

"_Either way you do it, you'll need either someone who is good at long-distance attacking or someone capable of using proportionately effective long-distance combat-use support ninjutsu... Most teams in Konoha are required to have at least one of them. When you don't have either... It's impossible to defeat your enemy. Unless you have a mind matching Shikamaru, that is."_

-

"...Okay, none of us are good at long distance attacking," Naruto mused. "And none of us are able to use pr—prop... long distance ninjutsu stuff..."

"Proportionately effective long-distance combat use supporting ninjutsu?" Sakura offered.

"...How'd you know?" Naruto said. "Well, none of us can do that thing... I mean, Neji and Sai aren't here, and Tenten's... gone." He paused. "But we have a person with a mind like Shikamaru's!"

"...I _am_ Shikamaru, you idiot," Shikamaru said, shaking his head and rubbing his eyes. "But... you're right." He looked outside.

"You've already come up with a plan?" Ino asked.

"Yeah," Shikamaru said, pulling out the only thing he'd need for this plan. He told them what they were going to do.

"You can't be serious!" Sakura said, looking absolutely horrified by the idea. "There are people on here!"

"Everyone here is either dead or dying," he said, already moving, placing various slips of paper on the train. "It can't be helped. Is everyone ready?"

The train blew up.

-

"Come on out, yeah," Deidara said, flying above the train on a large clay owl. The member of Akatsuki had released a small army of spiders just moments before and was waiting for the inevitable response.

Wonderful lights and sparks dazzled the insides of the train as the spiders detonated.

It had been a blessing that Deidara had been sent on this mission. He had merely been hunting down the Draco Malfoy boy when he spotted a familiar face.

Uzumaki Naruto, container of the demon fox Kyuubi.

The most prized Jinchuuriki.

"How wonderful, yeah," Deidara said to himself. He prepared a larger clay bomb. There was not a chance in hell that the spider-bombs had taken care of all of the Konoha shinobi. The shinobi of the Leaf were, by far, the most unexpected and annoying of all other shinobi.

Deidara was about to release a large falcon from his hand when the Konoha-nin did the job for him.

The telltale smoke of a series of explosion tags blew up the entire train. Bodies and debris littered the entire area. Deidara scanned the ground for movement. None. He scanned the ground for Konoha-nin. None.

"FUCK, yeah!" Deidara shouted angrily, letting out a string of curses once he realized that he had just been had by kids once again.

They had used the cover of the smoke and flames to flee the wreckage of the train.

Deidara paused to think.

Well, these were only Konoha-nin. And he was sure that none of them were Jounin, let alone S-class shinobi.

Deidara sent the others a message and began to track down the running shinobi. He'll just follow them for a while. Just for the kicks.

And then Voldemort could send replacements and do whatever the hell he wanted.

Deidara didn't really care. So long as he was able to 'amaze' these shinobi with his artistic talents for even just a short while, it'd be worth the fun.

-

**My Thinking Corner**

First of all, I would like to say: no, Malfoy did _not _Apparate across the world in the first chapter. He Apparated out of the building, but not out of Japan. I never really made that clear. Kinda forgot...

Anyway, I'm not really sure how well I did it from Deidara's third-person limited point of view. Was it weird?

Oh, I did a finger puncture thing recently in Med Lab and stuff. I pricked my finger the first time and ended up spilling blood everywhere too fast and not being able to collect enough of it back up to finish the testing, so I had to get a second finger prick, and _that_ took, like, five minutes to start bleeding! Yeesh... Well, at least our school stopped making us to venipunctures on each other. _That's_ a real relief. My fingers are still bruised though...


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Sorting Hat's Song_  
_

"Bloody hell, why is it so empty here?" Ron said, looking around on the train station for the missing throngs that always crowded Station 9 ¾. "The crowds and the luggage? And the midgets that come with it? _What happened to the underclassmen whom we are to lord over?_" he cried out dramatically, falling to his knees in despair.

"Oh, quit fussing like a baby and get up, Ron," Hermione said briskly, as she walked past Harry and Ron, already dressed in her Hogwarts uniform. "I do believe that's the first time that I've ever heard you speak proper English with proper grammar. I am, at least, glad that the tutoring sessions haven't completely gone to waste."

Harry paused. What tutoring lessons?

..._Oh_.

_Private_ tutoring.

Harry winced. He didn't want to think of his two best friends going lovey-dovey on each other. It was bad enough when Ron had practically left Harry and Hermione alone to snog with Lavender.

"Blimey, Hermione," Ron said suddenly. "When'd you change?"

"Looks like I spoke too soon," Hermione said, shaking her head with a sigh. "I changed in the bathroom earlier. I would have done that every other year prior to this one, but there's always _such_ a long line."

"Yeah," Ron said thoughtfully. "Where'd you reckon everyone went?"

"Home," Harry said dully. "Voldemort's attack was in the Daily Prophet about a week ago."

Suppressing a flinch, Hermione sighed.

"I can't believe that Voldemort would do something so flashy though..." Hermione said. "I mean, it's always subtle: they kill someone, and _then_ they make bright lights. But blowing up Muggles? I just don't see the logic in that"

"What really kind of surprised me was that, after that, nothing happened. V...Vo..._Voldemort_ didn't make any follow moves after that."

"What do you mean by that?" Harry asked him.

"I mean, of all things, V... Vol... _he _isn't an idiot," the redhead said as the three of them boarded the train, easily finding an empty compartment to sit in. "It only takes some common sense to realize that if you're going to do something so dramatic that catches the attention of the entire Wizarding world and the Muggle world, then you ought to do it in a series of lightning fast strikes. Like what Grindelwald did back in the nineteen-thirties and -forties. Blitzkrieg, I think, right Hermione?"

"I haven't read that book," Hermione said thoughtfully.

"It was in the History of Magic textbook, Year 5," Ron said. "In the section that we didn't finish."

"We never finished any of them," Harry said. "But...when'd you get to turn into _Hermione_?"

"I'm not sure whether to be shocked and annoyed that I'm considered on par with Ron or flattered that my tutorials have gotten him this far," Hermione said.

'_Whoa_,' Harry thought to himself. '_There was no deliberate innuendo... Hermione really _did_ mean it when she said she and Ron were having private tutoring sessions!_'

"Anyway," she continued, ignoring the speechless Boy Who Lived, "while you were spending your last days at the Dursleys', Ron and I decided at the Burrow that we're going to give it _all we've got_."

"Got what...?" Harry said dumbly. "I mean, give what all you've got? And just what have you two gotten?"

"The Second Holy Wizarding War, of course," Hermione said.

"Holy?"

"Another word for 'pureblooded', apparently," she mumbled darkly, "but that's not the point here. Not those egotistical pureblooded elitists with no sense of morals... _Anyway_, Ron and I are giving you our full support for the Second Wizarding War."

"...Wait, what are you guys talking about?"

"We're talking about how _I'm _going to be the brains of the outfit, and Ron will be the strategist," Hermione said.

Ron? The strategist? Sure, he was good a chess and at planning things out, but...

_What was the world coming to?_

"...Then what do _I_ do?" Harry asked.

"You beat the living daylights out of Voldemort," Ron supplied as the door to their compartment opened.

"I suggest you do not say zat too loudly..." a dark voice said.

All three of the seventh years spun around, with their wands pointed at their two newest arrival.

"...Snape!"

"That's _Professor_ Snape, Potter," the professor said darkly.

Wait a minute... the Snape they all knew and hated did _not_ speak with a Bulgarian accent...

"And Viktor," the man behind him said.

"Viktor!" Hermione said in surprise.

"You!" Ron said.

"Hullo..." Viktor Krum said to them.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked, hugging her 'pen pal' warmly.

"..." ((A/N: That was Ron, by the way.))

"Haffn't you read the letter?" he asked Hermione. She sat up immediately.

"Oh, of course I have, but I don't think you mentioned anywhere in there about you coming to Hogwarts in here," she said, pulling out a forty-two inch long piece of parchment.

"Harry," Viktor said pleasantly, shaking hands with his previous Triwizard Cup rival. "How haff you been doing?"

"The friendliness in this compartment repulses me," Snape said suddenly. "I'll be going, _Krum_."

The professor left, muttering something about not wanting to look at those moronic children all day long.

"He doesn't have to look at us," Ron mumbled under his breath as the professor left. "His _hugenormous _nose blocks his view anyway."

"I heard that Weasley!" they heard him from the next compartment. Harry could've sworn he heard squeals of fear as the black-clad professor passed from compartment to compartment of students to reach the teachers' private train up in the front. "That's five points from Gryffindor for talking about a teacher, five points for trying to do it behind my back, and another ten points for failing to do so!"

"...He can't really do that, can he?" Ron whimpered. "I mean, the school year hasn't even started yet..."

"Oh, he can," Viktor said, nodding.

"How do you know?"

"I read it in a pamphlet of rules that Albus sent me," he explained.

"Ah, I found it!" Hermione said, circling a line in her saved letter with an inked quill. "But you didn't really give me any clues... All you said was that you had a surprise for me. ...Oh, you're attending Hogwarts? That's the surprise?"

"Erminey..."

"Her-my-oh-nee," she corrected automatically.

"...Harmony?"

"Good enough."

"Sounds better than your real name, anyway."

"Quiet, Ron."

"...Okay."

"Anyvay... I am not here to attend to Hogvarts. I think you forgotten that I had already graduated."

"My mistake," Hermione said with a smile. "I wasn't really thinking. But then what are you doing here?"

"You are looking," Viktor said with a proud look in his eye, "at Hogvarts's newest Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"Congratulations!" she said. "But what about Quidditch?"

"I am afraid that Bulgaria did not make it to the finals," he said. "Plus, wiff the Vizard Var going on, the crowds are thinner and the cheers are less joyful. I am also on break and haff decided to do what I do second best."

"Teach?"

"Dark Arts and how to defend from them," he said with a nod.

"You're teaching us actual dark _magic_?" Harry said in surprise.

"Goodness no, Dumbledore vould not be very happy with _that_," Viktor said. "But I will teach effects and other such things..."

"Huh, I bet Snape wasn't very happy about that," Ron snickered, though his eyes remained fixated on Viktor like he was the true enemy.

"Vich is exactly vy I vould prefer not to share a compartment with him," he said. "You don't mind if I join you, do you?"

"Of course not!" Hermione said happily, oblivious to Ron's subtle glowering.

"So, um... where's Ginny, anyway?" Ron asked Harry.

"Oh... um... she's... not really happy with me right now," the Boy-Who-Lived mumbled. Ron immediately went on the offense.

"Harry. What did you do to my sister?" he asked, a glint of light shining in his eye.

"Nothing!" Harry said quickly. "It's just... we... kind of... I actually... ...I broke up with her."

"_WHAAAAT_?!"

"I... I had to! With the Hor—the things Dumbledore wanted me to do!"

Ron immediately calmed down. "_Oh_. Okay, so... you only broke up with her because you want to protect her right?"

"Right."

"And you do realize that the only way you're going to get her _not_ to help would probably be to tie her up and toss her in a locked room, right?"

"But I'm going to do my best to try."

"...I love ya, mate."

"..._Huh_?"

Ron gave Harry an enthusiastic thumbs up sign and a huge grin. "I give you my full approval to date my sister!"

'_I wasn't asking for it_!' Harry wanted to say.

"You're six months too late!" he exclaimed. "We were going out for a while, you know."

"Or," Ron said, "I'm an indefinite period of time too early. Once this whole war thing blows over, I give you my complete approval to date my sister. Completely! Which means I'll do my best to suppress the feeling that my metaphorical brother is dating my literal sister, no... _no matter _how weird or freaky it makes me feel!"

Harry laughed at Ron's joke (hopefully, it was a joke, anyway), but the comment about the war threw him off slightly.

"Yeah," Harry said to the others with an anxious grin on his face, hiding the uneasy feeling in his stomach. "Once the war is over."

-

"You know..." Naruto said, looking at the darkening sky from school library's window. "It's starting to get dark..."

"So?" Kiba said, not looking up from his book, Magical Diseases of the Modern World.

"Today was supposed to be Shikamaru's turn to get us something to eat," he said. "And he hasn't come back yet."

"Wow, really?" the Inuzuka said, tonelessly and still probably not paying attention, as he flipped another page in the book.

"Students are going to be here in less than an hour."

"Fascinating."

"Once they get here, I don't feel like looking for the Great Hall with kids getting in my way all over the place..."

"Hn."

"..._Are you getting us something to eat or what?_" Naruto finally asked impatiently.

"I'm _busy_ here!" Kiba snapped back irritably, looking uncharacteristically busy indeed.

"Shut up, both of you!" Sakura shouted from behind the book shelves.

Naruto and Kiba looked up, startled, somewhat prepared for what was coming next. Books were tossed from behind the shelf where Sakura was, and they began to fall on Naruto and Kiba like hail.

"Incoming!" Naruto shouted, ducking under the table.

"Ow!" Kiba said, wincing as one book had struck him square in the middle of his head.

"I can't believe it!" Sakura said angrily, leaving the shelves that she had previously been organizing. "Nobody here has properly organized these books in years! Decades! Naruto! Make some Kage Bunshin and _help me out here_!"

"But I'm hungry!" he said.

"You haven't picked up dinner for us at all," she chided him. "It'd be nice if you did something yourself! I heard you complaining to Kiba... Fine, Kiba, _you _help me organize the books. Naruto, pick up dinner."

"Wait, _I'll_ pick up dinner!" Kiba said frantically as the pink-haired kunoichi dragged him off with Akamaru in tow. "No! Naruto! _Help_!"

"Hehehe, sucker," Naruto snickered as he began to leave.

Kiba's sobs echoed in the library.

Naruto continued on his way. He didn't feel like looking for the Great Hall or the kitchens, but he definitely didn't want to stay and help Sakura. Once the girl went on a cleaning frenzy, there was no escape.

"Naruto..." Sakura said, calling him back for a moment.

Naruto shivered.

"...Yeah, Sakura... chan?"

"I think you're forgetting something," she said.

Naruto sighed. "_Alright, come on, you_," he said in English, pointing to a sulky blond in the corner.

"_I refuse,_" came the stubborn response.

"..."

Naruto glared.

Moments later, he had a tied up, thrashing Malfoy dragging behind him.

"_This is completely undignified! Untie me at once! I refuse to be handled in such a ridiculous manner!_" Draco Malfoy growled, trying to get away.

"I think you lost your right to tell us what to do the moment you hired us for some crack mission to kill an old man who just so happened to be the _strongest _old man in the world," Naruto muttered in his own language, looking rather annoyed

"_What was that?_" Draco said indignantly, not understanding a word of Japanese.

"_Keep your mouth shut and I won't ask Sakura to sew it up_," Naruto said firmly. "_You be glad that Ino stood up for you_."

"_Why did she anyway_?" Draco asked.

"_Beats me. I mean, why keep you? You're useless._"

"_Am not_!"

"_Are too_!"

"_Am not_!"

"_Fine! ...You make a good 'team mascot'._"

"_I do not! Take that back!_"

"_No. Either you are our 'mascot'__ or you are 'useless'. Take your pick!_"

"_...I'm useless,_" Malfoy said, looking rather depressed.

"_Good boy_," Naruto said mildly, glancing around the hallway. "_Now tell me, where the heck is the kitchen_?"

"_How should I know_?"

"_You've lived here for how many years, and you don't even know where the kitchen is?!_"

"_Shut...! Um... nevermind._"

Naruto thoroughly enjoyed tormenting their former client. He was sure that he—like a majority of the others—would have loved to at the very least beat the living crap out of him, but Ino was completely against it. Who knows? Perhaps in the two months that she had been to forced to stay inside his mind, she and Malfoy were now thinking on the same wavelength.

Or something.

The whole situation as to how Ino got caught up in the 'help-I-can't-get-out-of-Draco's-body!' situation was rather difficult to grasp. What they knew so far was that she had been fooled into drinking a cup of tea containing some sort of potion.

From what Sakura and Shikamaru had deducted together, the potion in the tea forced Ino and Malfoy to switch places in the mind, leaving Malfoy in charge and Ino trapped in the back. However, thanks to Ino's strength of mind, she was able to occasionally gain some control over Malfoy's motor skills—enough control to help him in tight situations as he had been pursued by both wizards, Deidara, and even her friends, though she hadn't been sure it was them at the time.

Through sheer determination, she had managed to keep hold of her own conscious thoughts, watching through Malfoy's eyes, completely aware of the world around her. Had it been a slightly more normal situation, she wouldn't have seen anything from his mind at all, dormant in the back of his head. Instead, she spent the past months watching through his eyes, feeling his basic emotions, and understanding his view of the world.

It was probably because of this connection that she had gained some sort of close personal attachment to him.

Either way, after she had drank the first potion, roles were, once again, switched, with Ino in complete control of the body and Malfoy conscious but stuck in the back seat. Still, even after she took the potion, she had been still been unable to expel herself from the body, which meant that Dumbledore was having them rescue her with the intention of having them save Draco Malfoy in the process.

Was the senile old man completely unaware of the fact that Malfoy had tried to have him assassinated?

Either he forgot, he didn't know, or he didn't care.

No matter which Dumbledore was—forgetful, oblivious, or unconcerned—he was still the kookiest genius Shikamaru had ever met. And that fact really did seem to tick the younger genius off quite a bit.

On the other hand, maybe Dumbledore did care about the fact that Malfoy had attempted to kill him and maybe he was aware of the threat of having the shinobi save Malfoy.

The old man was still up to something. He knew something the shinobi didn't.

Speaking of things Dumbledore had and the shinobi didn't, he also seemed to possess an incredibly unrealistic amount of luck.

Even when Shikamaru wasn't around to intercept the occasional shuriken that targeted Dumbledore out of spite, if not killing intent, his friends' attacks always seemed to miss the old man.

On one occasion, in fact, when Naruto was testing out his new boundaries, he had thrown a fork in Dumbledore's direction and, instead of even drawing the slightest amount of blood, he suddenly hiccuped and completely missed, hitting McGonagall's pointy plaid hat.

Shikamaru immediately reacted the moment he saw the half-hearted attempt on Dumbledore's life by grabbing Naruto by the front of the shirt.

"_Stop that_," he hissed angrily.

It was then that Naruto noticed the cold sweat on Shikamaru's forehead and the slightly frantic look in his eyes.

Something wasn't quite right.

Naruto warned the others against harming Dumbledore after that. He didn't like the feeling in the pits of his stomach that accompanied the panicked expression he saw on his friend's face.

In any case, the shinobi knew better than to expect Shikamaru to share any private information regarding his obligation to protect the damnable crackpot old man. Either the situation for him was extremely dangerous or extremely demeaning, and if the latter was that bad—so humbling that Shikamaru was unable to bring himself to share the details—then the shinobi were rather hopeful that his situation was just too plain dangerous for him to tell.

And so they brought their focus back to what they _did_ know: they were stuck with Malfoy, whether the majority liked it or not, by the will of Ino, Shikamaru, and Dumbledore.

All that they knew for sure was that Ino had privately convinced Shikamaru to let Malfoy live, and the fact that Dumbledore wanted Malfoy alive, god knows why, was rather helpful in the genius's final decision as well.

Since wiping the wizard's memory and tossing him out where he was wanted by Death Eaters would more than likely lead to Malfoy's imminent death—as Dumbledore and Ino were so opposed to—there was only one way to handle this: they had to keep him.

On the other hand, even though Naruto didn't like the idea that their recent clients were beginning to show a tendency to successfully manipulate them all, he wasn't completely unsatisfied by the results. Sure, no one still had any idea what Shikamaru had done to get everything they currently had, but they weren't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

...For now anyway.

After all, they were living comfortably (in a castle of all places), safe from most immediate danger. All they had to do was protect the castle, the students, and the teachers.

Oh, and the only downside was the fact that they had to protect the castle, the students, and the teachers.

Naruto paused, stopping his search for the kitchens to think with Malfoy sulking—still tied up—behind him. The students were due to arrive for some sort of feast in an hour, according to Neji and Ino, who would both have to attend the opening ceremony as well. That meant he probably only had half an hour to get to the kitchens before the house elves would be too busy to spare a bit of food for all of the shinobi.

They passed by the Great Hall, where Shikamaru was idly lying on top of a table, staring at the ceiling with his 'I'm-cloud-watching-so-leave-me-alone' face.

It was odd, seeing him wearing robes, but the smoke lingering in the air was unmistakable. The blond noticed, with a slight bit of humor, Shikamaru putting out his old cigarette on the table, leaving yet another burn mark, and pulling out a new one from his pack.

All of a sudden, Naruto shivered. The entire corridor had suddenly grown cold. Nevertheless, he continued onward, maliciously grinning as he began to walk down a few stone steps with Malfoy still being dragged on the stone floor behind him, when the bound wizard shouted to Naruto.

"_Look! I think that's the Bloody Baron! Please, just ask him for some bloody directions so we can find those gods-cursed house elves!_" he said desperately, jerking his head in the direction misty presence, barely visible in the rapidly disappearing sunlight.

"_The Bloody Baron?_"

"_The ghost for the Slytherin house,_" Malfoy said. "_He's bloody scary and doesn't really talk, but he might at least point us in the right direction!_"

Naruto squinted at the misty form and approached the ghost with Malfoy literally in tow. "_Hey! Baron!_" the shinobi called out, waving his arm to hopefully catch the ghost's attention.

Naruto wasn't sure how to act around this man. Er... ghost. It was actually the first time he had wandered in the hallways, the task of bringing food back up to their quarters often left to Kiba or Neji.

Kiba, Neji, and Sai had previously spent a large part of their time mapping out the entire school, after all, and knew the school better than all of the others. Plus, Kiba had his sense of smell to hunt down house elves and meals, while Neji knew almost automatically where things were in the castle.

And no one really trusted Sai alone with the food.

"_Hey, can you help us out_?" Naruto asked as the shimmering form began to take a more humanoid shape while it approached the two. "_We don't know where the kitchen is and soon the students are going to come and _oh my god..."

Naruto's rather solid grasp on English suddenly fell apart, reverting back to his more habitual Japanese language when the ghost finally took a visible form.

"_Well_," the Bloody Baron said with an eerie voice, in all his bloody glory, glancing from blond to blond. _"This is quite the unexpected coincidence..."_

"..."

Naruto stared at the ghost for what felt like the longest time before dashing off, screaming with the ghost languidly floating after him.

"_SAKURA-CHAAAAAN_!"

-

Moments later, Malfoy found himself alone, tied up and left alone in the hallway, hearing the echoes of Naruto's frantic screams.

"_...I'm stuck here, aren't I?_" Malfoy said to no one in particular, looking around at the empty halls.

-

Harry could see Hogwarts in the window as the carriage they rode in passed the gates and approached the school. The many windows reflected light from the sun just before it set. Eventually, the carriages slowed down to a stop.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny (who had joined them for the carriage ride) took their time walking towards the great oak front doors, which stood at the top of a flight of stone steps.

"Move along," Professor McGonagall said to all of the passing students as they entered the building. "Into the Great Hall...!"

The Great Hall looked as magnificent as it always did, decorated for the start-of-term feast. Golden plates and goblets gleamed by the light of a thousand candles that floated over the tables in midair. The four long House tables were packed with students trying to find seats with familiar faces, with the staff watching in silence at the front of the room.

"Hey, hey, there's Viktor," Hermione said, pointing at the Quidditch player who was on break for the year.

Seeing her point at him, he gave a small wave to Hermione, who enthusiastically waved back.

"Oh joy..." Ron muttered, walking past her to take a seat at the table.

"Who's that?" Hermione said suddenly.

"Who's who?" Harry asked, scanning the table more carefully for whoever Hermione was looking at. Professor Flitwick was seated on a large pile of cushions beside Professor Sprout, whose hat was askew on her flyaway gray hair. She was talking to Professor Sinistra of the Astronomy department, and on Professor Sinistra's other side was an empty seat—presumably Professor McGonagall's. Dumbledore was sitting in the center, next to Harry's least favorite person in Hogwarts—Snape. And, of course, poor unfortunate Viktor was forced to sit next to Snape, who still seemed annoyed by the fact that the much younger wizard had pried the title 'Defense Against the Dark Arts professor' away from him. There seemed to be a stifling silence between them.

And next to Viktor was an unconscious man, whom Hermione currently had her attention focused on.

"Is he passed out or just sleeping?" Hermione wondered with wide eyes.

"I think he's passed out," Ron said.

"I think he's drunk," Harry said, looking at the bottle that the man held firmly in his grip.

"He could be passed out _and_ drunk," Hermione said reasonably.

"That's definitely not butterbeer in his hand..." Harry muttered, watching as Viktor Krum inspected the unmoving body, and then looked at the bottle, prying it from the man's stiff fingers and glancing at the label on the bottle. "Ah wait... I stand corrected. That _is_ butterbeer."

"He got drunk off butterbeer?" Ron said, looking absolutely amazed—for good reason.

"Maybe he added something to it...?" Hermione said uncertainly. "I'm sure Dumbledore will probably introduce or explain a bit more about him in his opening speech."

The words were no sooner out of her mouth when the doors of the Great Hall opened once again. Professor McGonagall led a long line of first years up to the top of the Hall. She placed a three-legged stool on the ground before them and, on top of it, an extremely old, dirty, patched wizard's hat. The first years stared at it, as did everyone else in the room. For a moment, there was complete silence, except for a faint snoring. Then, a long tear near the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat broke into a song.

Harry vaguely noticed the man at the end of the table jerking awake and falling out of his chair, disturbing the Bulgarian professor sitting next to him.

_So here you are all gathered  
Just like every year before.  
Most of you will know my song,  
But listen, I implore._

_The house that I will sort you to  
Will show your heart's true colors.  
But my aim is not to sever you  
Or divide you from the others._

_United Hogwarts stands,  
And divided we will fall.  
Animosity between us spells  
Disaster for us all._

_If you're Gryffindor you're daring,  
Courageous and brave at heart.  
While if you're Ravenclaw you're clever,  
Intelligent, witty and smart._

_In Slytherin you're cunning,  
Ambitious, shrewd and sly.  
And in Hufflepuff you're fair and true,  
You work hard and always try._

_And of course there are the others  
Who have no House to go.  
Help them in search,  
And they'll pay back what they owe._

_Now put me on, and don't be scared  
It doesn't take that long.  
I'll take a peek inside your head  
And see where you belong!_

"Well..." Ron said scratching his head. "_That _was certainly a better song than last year's song. But all I want to know is... why does our table smell like smoke?"

"I don't know, Ron," Hermione said impatiently, "but what did the Hat mean by 'the others who have no House to go'?"

"No idea," he said. "But seriously, it stinks here." He looked around for the source of the smoke. "I think it's the _table_."

And, while the three friends bickered about what was most important—the song and the newcomer (Hermione), the absence of a certain Draco Malfoy (Harry), or the smell (Ron)—the sorting of the first years was completed and everyone began to eat.

"I wonder where Malfoy is?" Harry vaguely wondered, glancing at the Slytherin table where Crabbe and Goyle sat, looking rather lost without their leader.

"I-don't-know-I-haven't-seen-him-at-all-during-the-summer," Nearly Headless Nick said very quickly, appearing out of nowhere.

Everyone stared at him suspiciously.

"...What?"

"Welcome!" Dumbledore said to the room. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, concerning security and such. A few anti-intruder jinxes on all of the walls have been removed, but they have been replaced by a new form of security. It is in your best interest not to touch the walls if possible.

"...As we are all quite aware of, Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters are continuing to gain strength. Our situation here is extremely dangerous. All of the castle's magical fortifications have been strengthened even further but we must continue to avoid careless mistakes. If you notice any strange behavior, I urge you to report this to your Head of House, and if your Head of House is incapable of handling the situation, report directly to me or one of the portraits, who will relay the message to me.

"And...regarding some of the other security measures I've taken, I do suggest that you avoid performing any suspicious actions or acts of violence in the corridors. It has been quoted from our security that 'Anyone who acts like an enemy will be treated as an enemy.' I suggest you heed this warning and avoid alarming them. A major warning to _everyone_, students, faculty, and 'miscellaneous' included: you are _not_ to leave the school grounds without permission under any circumstances, as you will suffer dire consequences should you attempt to do so.

"Items banned from Hogwarts will be posted on Argus Filch's door, as well as in your House. Dark, dangerous, and sharp items of any kind—excluding quills—will be confiscated and returned only if it has been judged to be safe. Guests of any kind are not allowed in Hogwarts unless they have first appointed a meeting with myself so that I may judge their trustworthiness.

"...Now, on to lighter subjects, I would like for you to welcome Viktor Krum. You know him mainly as the Bulgarian Quidditch team's star seeker, but in light of current events, he has taken a vacation from his games and has come to teach us in the course of Defense Against the Dark Arts for this year," Dumbledore said as students cheered and screamed out enthusiastically. "And now it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!"

((A/N: I openly admit that I copied the gist of the opening from those of previous books. I honestly have no idea what to put for his 'tuck in' 'nitwit blubber tweak'... word thing. And, ah... I forgot what else I was going to say. I also borrowed the basic rhyming scheme for the Sorting Hat from some other story or website (can't remember...) but if this is yours and you feel in any way offended, tell me and I will immediately remove it!))

-

"Dumbledore..." Harry said, approaching the headmaster as the old man began to leave the room.

"Harry," the headmaster said with a smile on his face. "Those lessons I gave you on Tom Riddle's past... You've seen what you need to see regarding Voldemort. Starting at the beginning of every month after October, you will be having new lessons. A few will be brief memories of Lord Voldemort, but not many. I have new information in store for you about a new subject."

"About what? What do you mean? Why? Shouldn't we be focusing on Voldemort and his Horcruxes right now?"

"Oh, we will be focusing on that. But what I am going to give you will be vital for controlling your new 'weapons'."

"Weapons?"

"I am growing old, Harry. We are both aware, I believe, that I will not live forever. Perhaps I'll survive at the end of the war. Perhaps I will not. What I do know is that if I die under unnatural circumstances, you will have to pay back the debt that I owe."

"...Are you broke?"

Dumbledore chuckled. "I did make it sound that way, didn't I?" he said thoughtfully. "No, no, I am not in any financial debt. However, a friend of mine is very big on paying back what is due. Not monetary-wise, but... a favor, I suppose, though the word is a great understatement."

"What are you talking about?"

"You will find out on the first of November, when I will give you your first lesson," Dumbledore said. He paused, glancing around the room. The flickering torches dimly lit the room "In the meantime, I suggest you get to bed. This year may turn out to be a long and weary one for many of us. And you, especially, if you choose to take the 'Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests'."

"Er, right," Harry said, nodding. "Thanks, Professor Dumbledore."

"Good night, Harry," Dumbledore said, as the boy turned around and left. He pulled out his Put-Outer and clicked it like a cigarette lighter, returning a few lights to the magical torches posted on the wall that had mysteriously been doused out.

"Come out now, please," Dumbledore said.

A lone shadow that was previously hiding behind a suit of armor stepped out from the stone, sliding against the wall. The head was first to detach itself from the wall, and the shadow eventually peeled itself from the stone in the form of an annoyed man.

"Shikamaru."

"Dumbledore," he replied, nodding his head slightly.

"You were listening in on my conversation with Mr. Potter," the headmaster said, reprimanding him slightly. Shikamaru had an expression on his face that gave Dumbledore a feeling of deja vu, strongly reminded a wayward student being scolded for certain unorthodox activities.

"Well, you told me get a good look at Harry Potter and his friends, but you never told me not to follow him and listen to what he says to you and you to him," Shikamaru said, keeping his face impassive.

"Ah, your words are true," Dumbledore said. "I suppose I'll have to fix that mistake, won't I? I forbid you from meddling in my private affairs, Nara Shikamaru."

The leader of the group didn't say anything. Dumbledore felt rather guilty for this, but... it had to be done. Plus, it wasn't as if the shinobi weren't getting any perks, whether they knew it or not.

"You have more in store for us?" Shikamaru said.

"There's more to the job than protecting Hogwarts," Dumbledore said vaguely.

"You only paid us enough for a job to protect this castle and its residents."

"It was meant to be a kind gesture. I don't need to pay you for anything else. After all, why pay for something when all I need to do it to _tell_ you to do something for me? I don't _need_ to pay you, but I am, at least, paying you to protect the already well-protected castle. Kind of me, isn't it?"

"Of course," Shikamaru said through gritted teeth.

"You want to kill me," the old man said bluntly.

"_Nonsense_," the shinobi said dully, yet with the slightest hints of sarcasm. "We treat our clients with the utmost _dignity _and _respect_."

"I believe I had to untie Mr. Malfoy and redirect him to your quarters," Dumbledore said, looking slightly amused.

"...We treat _most_ of our clients with dignity and respect," he swiftly amended. "Clients who give us correct information and treat us the same way _they_ would prefer to be treated."

"I suppose once you're free, you're going to try and kill me as soon as you possibly can, won't you?" Dumbledore asked, a bit of humor in his eyes that aggravated Shikamaru.

Why on earth was he 'eye-twinkling' about his own death? He knew that the old man had something terribly ironic in mind.

"If that's what you think, then I'll make sure I do my best to fulfill your _expectations_ of us as expert assassins," Shikamaru said, his formerly aloof eyes starting to brim with anger. "And after you, I'll get Harry Potter. And whoever you'll have taught how to 'control' us."

Dumbledore frowned. He was fine with his own death threat. He was 'holding a hostage', he was manipulative, and he was currently acting as corrupted as a government official from the Ministry of Magic.

He vaguely regretted the fact that the shinobi looked at him with the same animosity that Voldemort held for Muggles, but what could be done about it?

And yet, despite all his actions, Dumbledore disliked the fact that the shinobi were also pinning a part of the blame on others, with the threat spreading to Harry as well. He felt that if there was anyone to blame, then it should be himself, but not Harry or anyone else innocent of the actions he was about to perform.

Dumbledore smiled at Shikamaru with that 'I'm-an-old-man-but-I-can-hit-you-where-it-hurts' smile.

"If only..." he said with mock regret.

Shikamaru looked at him with a mild look of alarm in his eyes. He was sure that Dumbledore wasn't going to hit him, but instinct told him that he wasn't going to like what his client was going to say. And his instinct was right.

"...If only you valued the lives of your friends as much as you did your own."

If the anger in his eyes wasn't brimming before, it certainly was now. But if he wasn't mistaken, Dumbledore spotted a bit of guilt in his charges eyes, suddenly feeling a fair amount of disgrace at his own words.

"You won't harm Harry Potter," Dumbledore said in a quiet, somewhat reprimanding voice.

"...I won't harm Harry Potter," Shikamaru repeated dully. "For the _billionth_ time, I _get_ it."

"And—"

"—I won't harm his friends or any other ally in this castle eith—" Shikamaru didn't get a chance to finish. The oak doors behind him opened suddenly as a drunk, long-haired man stumbled out with a half-full bottle of butterbeer in hand.

"Sum'un tried t'lock me in," Neji said to Dumbledore in garbled English, leaning heavily on the wall.

"Did they?" Dumbledore asked with stunning politeness.

"...Noooo. But I fell 'sleep and sum'un closed the deeeer. Ow ma ingles?"

"Excuse me? Are your... ankles hurting?"

"Now tha' y'mention it... no. The dun'. But hour my ingulsh?"

"...Oh, your English is fine. Your... intoxicated state doesn't... hamper it at all."

"Thanks, ye mis'rable leer."

Neji stumbled away, occasionally bumping into suits of armor, towards the quarters where he and the other shinobi were staying. Dumbledore noticed a shadow shoot across the floor and merge with Neji's silhouette. Moments later, halfway down the hall, the Hyuuga straightened up slightly and walked the rest of the way in an almost normal, sober manner, as if his movements were controlled by another.

Dumbledore sighed.

He was definitely going to owe a lot in the end.

'_Hopefully_,' he mused, '_I will be able to pay them back..._'

-

"_If only you valued the lives of your friends as much as you did your own..._"

Shikamaru laid in bed that night, fuming as he remembered Dumbledore's words. As if he hadn't had enough to think about already.

How dare he say something so open and rude? None of the shinobi spoke like that amongst each other.

Then again, they were all terrified at being split up by something as simple as an argument.

How dare that old man show that kind of disrespect! If they had been back in Konoha, one would be severely punished for such insubordination, judging on the status of the insulted and that of the one doing the insulting.

Of course, they hadn't been in Konoha in a very long time, much to everyone's despair.

And how dare he... be right?

Shikamaru frowned. Great, now he was starting to _doubt_ himself. Maybe it was just because it was hard working under someone as smart as he was. Or worse, possibly even smarter. Shikamaru sighed. Maybe he was just used to being everyone's boss. Now, he found someone not only as smart as himself, but as manipulative as all of the shinobi combined (which, he had to admit, wasn't that much of an impressive feat).

And he didn't like his situation at all.

The only thing he could say in defense of his own pride was that at least he and the others were... well, not quite in shape, but at least they could run without breaking a hip! Of course, comparing oneself physically with a man one hundred fifty years old and counting... That was a 'victory' over Dumbledore that left a sour taste in his mouth.

The door creaked loudly as someone appeared in the now open doorway.

"You okay, Shikamaru?" Ino asked, looking a bit concerned.

"I'd be better if I could manage to get my ceiling to look like the sky too," he said idly.

"What?"

"Out in the Great Hall where all of the students all eat their meals... Their ceiling has some sort of magic so that when you look up, you see the sky. ...Looks nice."

"Oh." Ino sat down in the bed. "Something wrong?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

"I've been stuck here for two years and I am utterly _sick_ of this world, magical or not."

Ino frowned. "Don't lie. You know you can't fool me. You've only been acting strange ever since we came here."

"Define strange. I was a smoker at fifteen which is apparently looked down upon in this world, I'm a ninja in a world where ninjas don't exist anymore, wizards _exist _and _fly on brooms_, I've broken the Nara tradition by willingly doing possibly more than necessary for a mission in my _youth_,and I found that I _despise _old men. Just looking at them leaves a bad taste in my mouth now... So tell me, which part do you find strangest? Because we've been stuck in a strange world for two years."

"Naruto and Sakura found out something very interesting..." Ino said slowly, veering away from the uncomfortable subject that everybody avoided at all costs.

"What is it?" Shikamaru asked, sitting up. As tired as he was of these 'interesting things' (which usually ended up turning into dilemmas), he couldn't really afford to overlook possible threats.

"I'll tell you in the morning. When you're less weird," Ino said teasingly with a small smile. She got back up. "Well, I guess I'll go back to my room. I've got to keep an eye on Malfoy and you've got to... do whatever it is you do. ...Think."

Shikamaru closed his eyes and frowned as Ino quietly shut the door.

What happened to the good old days when he could relax and afford to be lazy?

He sighed. Those lovely days where he could afford to relax and be lazy were long gone.

-

**My Thinking Corner**

Hm... it's now EXACTLY four in the morning and I am getting tired. I've been responding to reviews since... eleven or twelve. Anyway, I posted this chapter in celebration o

1) The last day of school (May twenty-fourth, when I had planned to post this story)  
2) My seventeenth birthday (May twenty-fifth, the day the story ended up being posted; it was midnight)  
3) _PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN!_

Now that I think about it, it's kinda sad that I'm more excited about the movie than I am my own birthday. Oh, tomorrow (today, I suppose) is also supposed to be my "reunion", where a whole bunch of friends from _elementary school_, of all places, would meet up at the mall. I kinda planned to go, but I don't think I have a ride... Meh, that kinda really sucks. Anyway... LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Hehehe... no more finals. I'm also probably not going to write much more this week, but

This chapter's only, like, half-edited because I've actually haven't really been able to get online to talk to my betas very much recently, so... yeah.

4:06. I'm wasting time in a damn corner when I could be asleep.

G'night, people.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:Break Ups and Big Mistakes  


"Neji... wake up..."

Neji burrowed his face in his pillow when someone pulled his ponytail gently.

Ino immediately sensed the attack and ducked as the Hyuuga lunged out at her, attempting to get at least one hit on her. He succeeded in falling out of the bed, clutching his head.

"Boy, you're fast," Ino said teasingly. "I sure am glad you've got a _hangover_."

"Oh shut up," Neji muttered looking at the clock and staring at it for a moment to remember why on earth it was smashed to pieces. Oh yeah... he destroyed it with his vacuum palm technique days ago. "What time is it?"

"It's only nine," Ino said, going through his belongings.

"...Our first class doesn't start until three in the afternoon..." he complained, sitting on his bed and attempting to sort out the tangles in his hair from when he slept with his hair tied back. Surprisingly enough for Ino, it took only one comb with his fingers to completely sort out his hair, and he was, once again, the perfect looking Hyuuga.

"Whatever," Ino said, continuing to rummage through Neji's desks and drawers. "Ah-hah!" She pulled out several clothes.

"What are you doing...?"

"I am picking out your outfit for class," she said decisively. "You gotta have something to cover up your marks... Oh, and Shikamaru wanted to see you out in the lounge."

Ino paused and grinned giddily. "We have a _lounge_..." she said with a huge smile. "I can never get used to that..."

Neji sighed and stepped out of his room to see everyone sitting around in the room outside where Ino had directed him, some staring outright at him.

"What?" he said irritably.

"Aren't you going to greet our new guest?" Sakura said suspiciously.

"What's this all about? There's nothing new about him," Neji muttered. They all watched him expectantly, much to his annoyance. "...Fine. '_Hello, Malfoy_.' Happy now?" he said irritably, annoyed by the fact that he was forced to treat a person he disliked with respect or, at the very least, with proper manners.

"Our _other_ guest. Actually, guests, as in plural," she said.

"Pale eyes... You must be a Hyuuga," a deep voice said.

Neji looked around wildly. He wasn't hearing things, was he?

"_What was that_?" Neji demanded.

"I knew it..." Shikamaru said, making a mental note of Neji's inability to see the speaker. Neji jumped slightly, seeing a faint mist appear out of the thin air.

"Hyuuga Neji, meet my ghost friend, Momochi Zabuza, and his invisible friend, Haku!" Naruto said with a huge grin on his face.

"I don't see them," Neji said in a defensive voice.

"It seems that the Byakugan is so good, it can't see incorporeal beings," Sakura said to them. "Naruto and I met them on our first mission that led us out of the Fire Country. Both of them died, and seemed to end up being sent here."

Neji stopped all chakra flow to his eyes completely and squinted in the direction he had heard the voice, seeing a nearly invisible gray mist.

"I _almost_ see..." he said.

"I'm now known as the _Bloody Baron_..." the voice said.

"Why didn't you just keep the name 'Zabuza'?" Neji asked. "_Bloody Baron_ seems rather... excessive."

"Ever since we both arrived here, everyone has been so scared of him that no one has ever bothered to ask his name," another voice said, sounding much younger and more feminine. It must have been Haku, who was completely invisible to the Byakugan. "That, and for a long while, neither of us could speak English."

"So you know English now?" Naruto asked.

"Of course," Zabuza said huffily. "A few decades here is long enough for even an idiot to figure it out."

"Zabuza-sama was so stubborn to try to rest in peace that he hovered around one of the House common rooms for fourteen years, refusing to listen or speak to a single English word. After a while, Albus just decided to assign him as the ghost of that House after the previous passed on."

"The ghost of a house?"

"Meant to watch over the students and sometimes allow them to confide in him."

Naruto snorted. "I can't imagine anyone confiding in him."

"Me neither," Malfoy muttered from his corner. Ironic. The ghost of his former House was also a friend of some of the people he now feared the most.

"Well, what I'm wondering is why people from... where _we're_ from ended up at Hogwarts," Ino said.

"Almost all the ghosts here died somewhere else and ended up drifting and getting tied to Hogwarts," the only wizard in the room said. "I don't know about any ghost here who actually died _here_."

"And what about the time jump? Why did Zabuza and Haku, who died less than ten years ago, end up waking up as a ghost exactly fifty-two years ago?" Shikamaru said out loud.

"How should _I_ know?" Malfoy asked, shrugging. "I'm not exactly an expert here."

"Question!" Kiba said suddenly to the two ghosts. "You know, since you're invisible and all... have either of you two ever gone into the girl's bathroom?"

-

Hermione sat in the girls dormitory with her newest book, The Ancient Art of Runes, sitting on her lap. She was currently doing her best to ignore the excited chatter coming from the other side of the room. Her fellow female year-mates were currently discussing the latest gossip that they had managed to gather on the first day of school.

"I heard Professor Hyuuga is a genius!" one of the girls said.

"I heard he's a fake..." another said doubtfully.

"He's a fake genius?"

"A genius fake!"

"A really hot genius fake... Think he's with Miss Yamanaka? I mean, they're both really pretty and they teach Divination _together_..."

"But you don't really feel much of a connection between them, do you?"

"You guys..." Lavender said to the others, glaring at her friends. "Enough with the gossip!"

The girl's dormitory went completely silent. Even Hermione was staring at Lavender, the queen of senseless gossip in the Gryffindor House. .

"No... gossip?" Parvati asked hesitantly.

"Not this kind," she answered. "The question is: where is Professor Trelawney? She doesn't usually attend the first feast, but why are those two teaching _her_ class?"

No one said anything.

"I didn't think about that..." one of the girls said slowly, an expression of fear growing on her face.

"Do you think You-Know-Who got to her for her powers?"

"Ugh..." Hermione rolled her eyes and snapped her current book shut, leaving the dormitory to study the Ancient Art of Runes out in the common room where it was, at least, a little bit more peaceful.

Already playing chess in front of the fireplace, Harry and Ron looked up to see Hermione huffily tossing her book down onto the table.

"Too noisy?"

"The gossip is going to drive me to the ends of the earth!" Hermione shouted angrily, letting out her pent up rage.

"...I take that as a yes?" Ron said. He glanced nervously at the thick tome in her hand. "...Homework?"

"Finished it. This is extra credit," she mumbled sitting down between Harry and Ron.

"Good. You can play against me too."

"The two of us against you?" Hermione asked, looking at him in surprise.

"Not the two of you against me, but... Harry against me, and you against me. Just at the same time..."

"You've gotten that good?" she asked him, surprised.

"Nope. I reckon I could take _you_ on. Harry's not that good anyway," Ron said, watching his bishop decimate Harry's queen.

"I resent that," Harry muttered.

"Scoot over," Hermione said, pulling out a chess set of her own. "You lost anyway. And Ronald Bilius Weasley, _you are on_. C'mon, Harry, let's all play."

"Doesn't it feel a bit weird that you and I have to join forces to beat your boyfriend-slash-my best friend?" Harry said.

"Not in a game of chess," Hermione said, putting on her 'game face'... which was actually just a look so full of concentration that she was pretty much glaring at Ron.

"So," Ron said, starting the opening game. "What's got the girls gossiping now?"

"Oh, just how pretty some 'Professor Hyuuga' was," Hermione said, pursing her lips as she planned out her strategy. Or maybe it was the thought of those girls fawning over yet another teacher. "I think he's the new Divination teacher or something. The one passed out on the table yesterday, you know? Anyway, Lavender's in a bad mood, since she doesn't know what happened to Professor Trelawney."

"That should worry us," Harry said idly, "but for some reason, it just _doesn't_..."

"Mm, I think I heard some of the third-years talking about the Divination teachers, actually," Ron said. "Apparently, there are two of them. The first teacher is some Asian guy with sunglasses and a hat and the second is a lady who looks like a Mal—"

"Wait, _what_?" Hermione said. Why hadn't she seen it before? She didn't give his appearance a second thought that night, being rather disgusted by the man's lack of table manners (or consciousness) at dinner, but it was so obvious thinking about it now!

"She looks like a Malf—"

"No, not _that_," she said, shaking her head. "The Asian man with the sunglasses and the hat!"

"What about him?" Ron and Harry asked.

"Honestly, you two!" she said. "_Who_ have we met this summer that is _Asian _and _covers himself up_?"

Harry's eyes widened. "Neji..."

"Exactly! His whole name must be Neji _Hyuuga_! From the Order!" she said. "Trelawney's probably been laid off or something. This means Dumbledore's _really_ taking action now! He's actually placing Order members inside Hogwarts for more protection!"

"I don't know about him taking action or not, but I guess this _is_ good news," Harry said. "But who's the other lady?"

"Her name is Yamanaka or something," Hermione said, taking a brief moment to remember the blond woman's name. "She must have a little bit of Japanese in her, or something. It sounds that way..."

"But is it just Neji?" Ron asked. "I mean, what happened to Kiba and Sai then? And is that woman in the Order too?"

"Maybe..." Hermione said. "Harry, why don't you ask Dumbledore about it later?"

"I don't know..." he said. "I don't want to bother him about something like this when there are those _You-Know-What's_ to study about. Plus, Dumbledore has something new in plan for me. Lessons start in a month. I wonder what it is that he's going to teach me...?"

"Well, if you don't ask Dumbledore about the teachers, then we might as well find out about them ourselves," Ron said with a growing grin on his face, already looking forward to this year's newest adventure.

-

"So," Shikamaru said, rummaging through the newly organized books in the library. "How was class?"

"Fine," Ino said. "Why are we staying up in the middle of the night in the _library_ of all places? And Sakura's going to kill you. She just organized this shelf by some kind of decimal system."

"Fascinating," he said sarcastically. "It's like I wasn't here when she forced us both to clean up the place..."

"You know... I find it a bit funny that you're working in the library of all places," Ino said, suspiciously. "Even more so that you're doing extra work while _everyone else_ is asleep."

Shikamaru looked up in surprise.

"They're sleeping?" he said. He looked at the clock on the wall and then at his own watch—which wasn't working. He silently cursed the anti-electronics school... He looked back up at the clock again. "Oh."

"Yeah, '_oh_'. It's midnight. We could _all_ be sleeping right now," Ino urged, tugging on his arm slightly. She was surprised when he resisted her tug.

"You don't _have_ to stay here with me," Shikamaru muttered, pushing her arm off his own. "Ah..." He pulled out a thick leather-bound volume, and without even glancing at it, he removed a second that was only a few books down on the row.

"What is it?"

"It's none of your business," he said, shrugging.

"Well, you're my boyfriend," she said teasingly. "That makes everything that's your business my business too!"

"Well then maybe we shouldn't go out," he replied casually.

"WHAT?!"

Shikamaru jumped at the sudden volume of her voice.

"It was a joke!" he hissed, covering her mouth. He may have been a librarian, but he had no real excuse to be sneaking around in the middle of the night looking at books.

Ino glared at him but she didn't say anything. Shikamaru frowned and made a face, seeing that even though she was angry, she _still_ wasn't leaving. He mumbled something under his breath.

"...Hey! Did you just call me a _nosy bitch_?!" she shouted.

"If that's what you think, then maybe I _did_," he shot back, looking at her square in the eyes. He didn't, actually, but he was getting rather frustrated with the way things had been going for him recently.

Moments later, Shikamaru found himself crouching on the floor, wincing as he rubbed the bridge of his nose where his face had hit the edge of one of the bookshelf.

He watched Ino through the shelves as she furiously stomped out of the library with the only lamp he had brought with him in hand. When he heard the door slam shut, Shikamaru sighed, putting the two books in his hands back on the shelf and pulling out all of the books that were between them.

'_One o'clock..._' he reminded himself. He had seven hours to read, translate, and copy down as much information from the books as he possibly could before Sakura would return to the library to start cleaning up again.

And of course, he'd probably have to get rid of all evidence of his tampering.

Shikamaru rubbed his eyes and prepared himself for a long night.

-

Lavender, Parvati, and several other students climbed the ladder up to the divination classroom nervously, unsure of what was going to happen this day. The third years claimed that the class was fascinating. Ordinarily, the majority of the classes disliked Divination because it seemed, according to them, 'too fake and stupid'.

What was the difference between Professor Sibyll Trelawney—descendant of the famous Cassandra Trelawney—and these two new teachers? What could be more realistic than the real thing?

'_Apparently, a _fake,' Lavender thought, pursing her lips in annoyance at the young woman who stood in front of the classroom with a bright smile on her face. She couldn't be much older than the students themselves!

Lavender and Parvati glanced around the classroom. Professor Trelawney's former habitat had been transformed from a comfortable, slightly cluttered round room to a... to an _office_.

Sure, it wasn't full of paperwork or any such thing, but the squashy arm chairs, little pouffes, and small round tables were arranged like an ordinary classroom with extra low furniture. The cards, tea cups, crystal balls, and various divination equipment were gone, no longer lining the wall. The strong, sweet-smelling fumes were replaced by the faint trace of incense, and the fireplace was void of any warmth and flame.

"Good afternoon, students!" the blond woman said to the class once everyone had found a seat. The guys taking the class were particularly responsive.

"Professor," Lavender Brown said, raising her hand.

"Yes, Miss...?"

"Lavender Brown, ma'am."

"Ah, Miss Brown," she said. "What is it?"

"I just have a few questions..."

"Oh, I'm sorry," the teacher said. "Not yet, dear. Introductions must be made first. Has everyone signed the roster? Where's the parchment? Oh, thank you, Mister Pritchard."

"How did you know my name?" Graham Pritchard asked, looking alert.

"That's what I'm going to be teaching you," the woman said with a smile. "_Later_. However, introductions are due. I am Miss... Prof... uh... you may just call me Yamanaka. I am Professor Hyuuga's partner. I have been working with him for about a year now, though not in this course. This is our first year teaching, so please be kind to us both. We're not great with huge groups, and if you're particularly rude, we'll fail you." She paused. "This is the seventh year Divination class. Towards the end of May, you will be taking your NEWTs exam, am I right?"

"Doesn't take a genius to figure that out," Lavender muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Lavender Brown," Yamanaka said, enunciating every syllable of her name. "Why do feel you need to say that?"

"Well, because it's obvious," Lavender said, feeling annoyed that she was being picked out of the group.

"Of _course _it's obvious, _sweetheart_," Yamanaka said, as if the student was a young child learning to talk. "And isn't it _also _obvious that a divinist doesn't need to make an effort to see a little thing? Tell me, child, were you thinking that I was using my 'magical powers' to see the future or something? No, no, that's not what I do!"

Yamanaka laughed. "This class definitely needs to get back to the basics. You are _very_ lucky we are here... Divination is an extremely misunderstood field. Tell me... Miss Patil!"

Parvati jumped slightly at this sudden shift of focus. She wondered vaguely how the teacher knew her name. "...Yes, Miss Yamanaka?"

"It's just Yamanaka. Tell me, what does divination do exactly?"

"It... predicts the future?" she tried uncertainly.

Yamanaka's eyes lit up gleefully at this.

The entire class felt almost scared of this woman at this point.

"Yes, yes! It certainly _is_ meant to do just that! But _successful_ divination does not predict the definite future. No, divination _actually_ predicts a future based on events that are currently happening outside of the wizard or witch's direct knowledge, yet based on what they know!"

Scratch that. They were definitely scared. Definitely _really _scared. But at least they were quiet.

"Ino..." a voice said from the back of the room. Students turned around quickly to see a dark-haired man, dressed astonishingly similarly to a Muggle, standing in the back of the room.

"Who are you?" Lavender said breathlessly, staring at this mysterious man in amazement.

Ino frowned at the dazed appearance of the female students. "_Class_," she said firmly. "This is Professor Hyuuga, one of the best... readers in our generation."

The man wore dark sunglasses, dragon hide gloves, and a low brim Muggle bucket hat. After shifting his hat slightly, he walked past the students to the front of the class. A girl sighed.

"What Yamanaka is _attempting_ to tell you is that direct actions do not work in Divination. For example, let's say... someone named Andrew is going to be killed by a mob of angry people next week on Tuesday—"

"Really?" Parvati said loudly. If they hadn't already been sitting on the floor, Lavender would have kicked her.

"_No_," Professor Hyuuga said. "That prediction would not work alone. Andrew getting beaten to death by a mob is one thing. An enemy of Andrew's _planning_ to kill him is another. See the difference? The latter was the _real_ prediction. The first was just an ordinary statement based on what you_ think_ will happenDivination is actually a form of sensory perception that is seeing something going on that, if continued through to it's natural conclusion, _will_ have an impact on someone or something in the future but may possibly not come to past."

"Exactly," Yamanaka said. "It is _not_ looking into the future, seeing something happen, coming back to the present, and reporting on it. No one _knows_ the future."

"But Professor Trelawney told us—!" Lavender was about to argue.

"Professor Trelawney made accurate assumptions because they just so happened to happen," the blond woman said, shaking her head.

Hyuuga nodded. "She found predictable things and chose to share that information with you. A true divinist does not depend on magic to foresee the possible outcomes. It uses _logic_. And _that is o_ne of the main reasons why so many wizards are unable to grasp this concept."

"I don't get it..." a Slytherin said.

"Then you are doomed to fail your NEWTs, and thus are excused from this classroom," the man said, nodding slightly. "The trapdoor and ladder are right behind you."

No one moved. The student stayed.

"How do we know you're the real thing?" Lavender said suspiciously. The professor looked at her for a minute then leaned forward with a small smile, only inches away on her face. Her eyes widened, having caught a glimpse of his astonishingly pale eyes.

"...Green is not a good color on you, Miss Brown," he said with a mocking smirk on his face. "And I'm _not_ talking about envy."

Lavender made a small noise, turning bright red and crossing her arms protectively in front of her chest, feeling rather violated by the mere statement. She heard Ino laughing at the front of the classroom.

"What did he mean by that?" Parvati asked.

"N-none of your business!" she said to her best friend, watching Professor Hyuuga return to the front of the classroom. Halfway there, he froze.

"Ino..."

The blond woman stepped forward and held his hand as they both took a seat at the desk. Both guys and girls sighed sadly.

Damn.

Lavender, on the other hand, eyed the 'couple' suspiciously. It didn't look as if they had any sort of romantic attachment or relationship between them. In fact, it looked more like Yamanaka was _leading_ him back to the desk!

"The first step in _our type_ of Divination," Ino said, returning to the front to the classroom, "is sitting down and assessing the 'customer'. I want you all to turn to the person next to you and find clues as to what he or she is feeling based on how they act..."

-

The rooms that the shinobi were supplied at Hogwarts were nothing short of homely and comfortable. As reluctant as everyone was to stay at the school, the castle itself was completely willing to do whatever it could to suit their needs.

Every room they had suited the resident's preferences. At first, they had all been puzzled by the one-room quarters they had been given, but the shinobi were pleasantly surprised when they found that they could request additional rooms whose doors magically appeared when needed.

Naruto was currently sitting in the 'living room' in front of the fireplace with a rather bored expression on his face as he counted the stones in the ceiling. He heard the creaking of the door as it opened and shut, but no footsteps, which meant it was one of his friends.

"Naruto," the newest arrival said.

Hearing his name, Naruto lifted his head slightly to see Kiba and Akamaru in the doorway.

"Hey," the Inuzuka said. A sofa appeared before him and he collapsed on top of it casually, though the intense stare he had on Naruto was anything but.

"...Yeah?"

Kiba's eyes darted around the room. Naruto looked around to see Akamaru sniffing about the room, as if searching for possible bugs or listening devices.

Was something wrong?

"You finished patrolling early?" Kiba asked him. His voice had no trace of fear or caution, though his eyes remained narrow and focused.

"Not really," Naruto said. "My kage bunshin are in the halls. If something happens, they'll go poof. Then I'll know that something is going on."

Kiba nodded. "I see." Akamaru barked loudly, wagging his tail, and jumped onto the couch with Kiba, who scratched him in his favorite spot behind the ears. "Thanks," he said to Akamaru. He turned back to Naruto. "Since you seem a bit bored, maybe you could help me."

"I'm guessing it's safe to talk now?" Naruto asked.

"Akamaru didn't smell anyone in here," he answered. "Or anything out of place either. Yeah, it's safe."

"Great, what do you need?"

Kiba pulled down his collar to show Naruto the large jagged scars that ran down his neck. "The werewolf bite," he said. "You remember, right?"

"You nearly gave us all heart attacks. I definitely won't forget," Naruto retorted. "What about it?"

"Werewolves are supposed to be infectious. I think I'm a werewolf now."

Naruto stared at him blankly. "Oh. Okay. ...Refresh my memory here: what's a werewolf, again?"

"Like a magical wolf. Only it's not some kind of normal disease. It's some sort of a cursed disease," Kiba said with a frown, pulling up his collar.

"And you think you're a cursed wolf now?" he asked. "Why?"

"My sense of smell is getting stronger," he said, pulling up his collar. "A _lot _stronger."

"Maybe you're bloodline is just turning into a real bloodline," Naruto reasoned. "Like puberty... or something."

"Maybe..." Kiba said, scratching his head and still looking unconvinced. "...My hair's a bit thicker too."

"You haven't cut it properly in years," the blond said skeptically. "I, for one, don't notice any big difference."

"That's probably true," Kiba admitted. "...I've also been bitten by a werewolf."

Blunt but to the point. He did have a point.

"...Now _that_ is some solid evidence," Naruto said. "So? What's the problem?"

"If I'm cursed, I should know a bit about my... 'condition', right?" he said, looking uncertain as to what to call it. "The ly...lyc... I don't know how to say it."

"Well, it's a magical condition thing, right?" Naruto said. "Look in the 'magical library' that Sakura and Shikamaru work in now..."

"I did," Kiba said darkly. "I looked at the catalog. I sat and actually _read_ _English_. And now I've got a huge headache too... But that's not the point I'm trying to make here. During some wedding that Neji, Sai, and I dropped by, there was this guy I met for a moment who was a werewolf."

"And you want to ask him about it?"

"Exactly."

"How would you know how to find him?" Naruto asked him. "He could be somewhere across the country by now. I don't think your nose has gotten _that much_ better..."

"I can find out."

Naruto met Kiba's eyes once again and found, much to his surprise, that there was none of that usual brotherly humor. He was completely serious, about how much he believed his scent had improved to track a man all over Europe, as well as running away from the rest of the group.

"...You really mean business, don't you?" Naruto asked, smiling to hide the dread he was starting to feel in the pits of his stomach. "You're sure that the curse thing didn't affect your brain?"

"I'm completely serious, Naruto," he said. "Akamaru and I plan to leave."

"What, do you want me to come with you or something?" Naruto said sarcastically, with his worst fears confirmed. "Just tell Shikamaru and go. Or I could if you wan—"

"_Don't_," Kiba said.

"Huh?"

"I don't want Shikamaru knowing that we're going to leave," he said.

"We're all supposed to be _friends_," Naruto said, looking annoyed. "Friends tell each other when they're going to run away and ditch the rest! You can't just sneak out and run out on us like that."

"Friends _also _don't hide important information from each other either," Kiba spat angrily.

"I'm not hiding anything anymore!" Naruto said angrily. "You all know about the Kyu—"

"I'm not saying that _you _are," he said, shaking his head. "I'm saying that it's Shikamaru. He's hiding stuff from us. Big stuff."

"But—you—he...ugh," Naruto scratched his head at the risks they were about to take with the unity of their surrogate family. "Why can't you just look in the _damn library_?"

"All of the information was gone," Kiba said. "It's been removed."

"_Huh_?"

"I asked Sakura for access to the records, so she let me look at all of the... I looked in the thing that helps you look for books. The catalog. Yeah. There's no information there on werewolves."

"Doesn't mean it was _removed_," Naruto said. "Maybe they just don't have it."

"During the students' lunch, I met some girl earlier today in the library," Kiba said.

"Was she cute?"

"Stop it, Naruto," he said.

Naruto stared at his friend. Crap, Kiba really was worried about this, wasn't he...

"_Anyway_, this girl... she practically _lives _in the library. She knew where every single book in there is and . And she knew that there was a missing book. So then I got Sakura to let me look at a few more records, and it turns out... there weren't any records. None of the books that girl and I were looking for were ever in the library."

"So that means they didn't exist," Naruto said. "The library never ordered them and that girl was wrong."

"No. In the her third year, she wrote two rolls of parchment on werewolves and she had an eight inch piece of parchment worth of citations and bibliography," Kiba said.

"She might've been lyin—"

Kiba showed him three sheaves of parchment.

"Oh."

"Yeah," Kiba said. He untied the pinkish red string from the parchment and unrolled the parchment to read. "It's really long and detailed and has a lot of information," he said. "And the citations claim that she got this information from... The Theories of Lycanthropy, The Origins of the Werewolf, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, and a lot more. These books are all gone."

"You know..." Naruto said, taking the papers and shifting them around to skim the longer than necessary English words. "You could always use _this_ to find whatever it is that you're looking for."

"It doesn't have it. I've already looked through it. It's not there..."

"And what is 'it', exactly?"

"The specific details that only another werewolf knows. I want to know that if I transform, when would it happen? The actual time of the month is common knowledge. According to this report, a werewolf always transforms under the full moon, but if you take a Wolfsbane potion on a regular basis prior to transformations, then the time spent as a werewolf is a bit shorter. It wouldn't take full effect until a certain time if you take the potion regularly and stay out of the moonlight, or something like that.

"But when I was bitten, the night wasn't over yet. I was bitten by a werewolf, and it was a full moon. I didn't transform. I might be a werewolf and I don't know how long it'll be before my transformations might start. I don't have any Wolfsbane Potion."

Naruto frowned. "What does the potion do, exactly?"

"Apparently, in the form of the werewolf, you attack anything that moves. I wouldn't be able to control myself, and if I manage to bite you guys, you'll get infected too," Kiba said. "The potion helps me keep my conscious mind in control, rather than the werewolf's instincts."

The blond frowned. This could be a huge problem... The whole mess they were in was a problem.

"Why do you think that Shikamaru is our 'enemy', or whatever?" Naruto asked.

"The shelf where the books were _supposed_ to be... they had his scent. He was there the night before, and I think he leaned his head against the shelf or something. Ino might have been there too, but I can't tell. Her perfume is all over the place and it irritated my nose too much to track down the actual scent."

Naruto frowned. "...How long do you think it would take for you to find this other werewolf?"

Kiba's eyes brightened. "A month, tops!" he said with a grin. "I promise."

"Well then... you have two weeks."

"_What_?"

"You can leave whenever time you want, I'll have a kage bunshin imitating you and Akamaru for two weeks, and if you don't come back within that time, I'll tell Shikamaru."

"This feels unfair," Kiba protested.

"The fact that these two years of close teamwork—living and working only with each other—don't seem to mean anything to one of us here..." Naruto said. "..._that_ feels unfair." He shook his head. "If we do this... We could be in deep shit with the others, you know?"

"With Shikamaru?" the Inuzuka asked. "What's he going to do, hit us? Pfft..."

"Kiba, you've done a _shit_ load of stuff. Shikamaru told us not to be nosy and look in too much on this magic stuff, not to make any kind of excessive contact with anyone outside of our group, _and_ not to leave the school grounds," Naruto said.

He paused, with his list of Shikamaru's orders helping them both understand how many rules they were starting to break. On the other hand, it also helped them both realize how well Shikamaru was dictating their group without them even giving his orders a second thought, using his leadership skills and their respect for him as a strategist as leverage when it came to persuading them to follow his every word.

"Two days after the arrival of the students at Hogwarts and we are already conspiring amongst ourselves. We're all split up. You versus Shikamaru and Dumbledore. Mutiny, man. It sucks," Naruto said. "...You have a month to get back before I tell Shikamaru."

"I thought it was two weeks?" Kiba said.

"What, do you want two weeks or a month?" Naruto asked irritably.

"A month," he answered quickly with a feeling of relief.

"Then you had better leave now."

He nodded quickly. "Right."

Naruto closed his eyes as Kiba started to leave the room, brows furrowed and with a frown on his face.

He was probably going to regret this.

"Naruto," Kiba said in the doorway, about to leave, with Akamaru standing by his side.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. Really, I mean it," he said, when Naruto didn't respond, either annoyed or worried. "I owe you."

"Stuff it," Naruto said, not moving from his seat to acknowledge Kiba. "We're like brothers, I think. And this is what brothers are for, right?"

"...Thanks."

The small feeling of relief that Kiba was starting to feel was immediately doused by the muttered comment that Naruto probably didn't expect Kiba to hear through the closed door.

"For using them for your own needs, Kiba, you asshole."

It then occurred to Kiba how being considered a brother—or any other part of a family on occasion—often wasn't a compliment in Konoha.

-

The Golden Trio looked up at one another with a small fleshy-colored bead in their ear. The 'wireless' connection from Fred and George's 'Extendable Ears' was a prototype. They hadn't introduced the newer version of the Extendable Ears to the public yet, but Harry, Hermione, and Ron were the first to be able to use it, with its "wireless connection" and the feature that allowed it to record sounds.

"...I didn't understand a _single _word they said," Ron said, completely bewildered by the Japanese conversation.

Having not foreseen this unexpected obstacle, Hermione hit her forehead in frustration.

-

"We haven't seen you smile like that in a long time," Ino commented, taking a seat on a cushion next to Neji. They were both in the Divination tower, drinking tea. The last class of the day was over, but Ino had kept Neji up in the tower so she could complain about 'how cold Shikamaru was being to her' recently. "I'm glad I was the first to see it."

"You're making fun of me," Neji said, definitely not smiling.

"No, I'm not," she insisted. "But just out of curiosity, was it because Miss Brown's green lingerie had something silly written on it or because you're just a pervert?"

Neji turned his head to look at her and then looked, resisting the urge to make a scathing remark about the lack of personal attention Shikamaru had been showering her with. Instead, he made a comment on a subject that had been bothering him.

"Naruto and Kiba are up to something..." Neji said to her.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I only got half of their conversation, and sometimes they mumbled so I couldn't really read their lips, but... from the looks of it, Kiba's bailing out on us."

"_Bailing out_?" Ino repeated incredulously. "As in, like, leaving?"

"Not right now," Neji said. "He's in his room. But yes, it seems that he is planning on leaving us."

Ino didn't say anything.

"First Tenten and now Kiba and Akamaru," the Hyuuga said contemplatively. "By the time we get back home, we're going to be out of shinobi."

"Neji, Tenten didn't _bail out _on us," Ino said.

"Well I don't believe she's dead either," Neji muttered.

"I don't want to argue about it," she said, immediately brushing over Neji's damnably persistent theory. "Any more arguments, and the tension will give me a heart attack."

"And then I suppose we'll have lost our fourth member."

"I'm getting a headache just thinking about it. Let's not talk about it. What do we do about Kiba?"

"Well," Neji said, looking at the sparrows that they had bought from the pet store in Diagon Alley. "We don't need all seven of these just for messages if one of us are going to leave." He reached over and unlatched the wire door, allowing one of the sparrows to fly out.

"Baki... (1)" he said to the sparrow that perched on his fingers. "If Kiba leaves, follow him."

-

Hermione replayed the conversation for the last time, taking notes with the library's Japanese dictionary set out in front of her. It had taken several frustrating hours, but she finally finished translating it into rough but understandable English.

She was hoping that the conversation was worth the effort she put into it.

Luckily, it was.

"Okay, there are two of them in the room. One is Kiba from Bill's wedding, and the other is named Naruto," she said, reading her information out loud. "Kiba and someone named 'Akamaru' are going to leave."

"'Akamaru'... _That's_ a funny name..." Ron said thoughtfully.

"So is '_Shikamaru_'," she said with a shrug. "Maybe their brothers or something... Anyway, Kiba and Akamaru are patrolling the school. I'm assuming that they're guards that Professor Dumbledore hired to keep a low profile and guard the school. It would make sense. Kiba's guarding the school, Neji's taking position as a teacher in Trelawney's tower to watch over, and Sai's probably somewhere inside the school too!"

"And so far, we know that there is Kiba, Neji, Sai, Naruto, Shikamaru, and Akamaru in this school who are involved with Dumbledore for sure," Harry said.

"And Yamanaka," Hermione said. "Someone mentioned how a lady named Yamanaka told them she had worked with Neji before. She's probably in the group too."

"Whatever. I still think that Kiba might have been the person who attacked Hogwarts..." Ron mumbled.

"Why would he if they're protecting Hogwarts?" Harry asked.

"_Wait a minute..._" Hermione said. "Akamaru's not a person. I think he's a dog. Kiba said 'Akamaru didn't smell anyone in here'."

"Kiba also said that his sense of smell was getting a lot stronger than usual. They might have a strong sense of smell already," he said.

"Kiba said _his_ nose was stronger, not Akamaru's," she corrected. "Plus, that might be a side effect of him becoming a werewolf..."

They didn't say anything. "That... really sucks," Ron muttered. "Aside from the fact that he may have nearly killed us _and _Dumbledore, I kinda liked him."

"It's not as if he's dead," Harry said defensively. "Professor Lupin is just fine—"

"That's it!" Hermione said suddenly.

"What's it?" he and Ron asked.

"He's talking about Remus Lupin! He's going to Professor Lupin. They must have met face-to-face after Bill's wedding. Kiba knows that Remus is a werewolf, so he's going to find _him_!"

"He doesn't need to go running all over Europe looking for Remus," Ron said. "We could find him before he leaves and tell him that we can get a message directly to him! We'll take the Invisibility Cloak!"

Harry frowned. "No offense, but I don't think all three of us will fit under there too well anymore," he said. "_I'll_ go."

-

"Studying, Mr. Nara?"

Found, once again, under the sky in the Great Hall, Shikamaru hastily folded up the map, stuffed it into his pocket, and hid his cigarette. There was a small hissing sound and smell of burnt wood as he smothered the lit cigarette end on the dinner table decorated with green and silver.

He knew it was Dumbledore walking into the Great Hall the moment the old man stepped through the doors.

By now, he knew that Dumbledore was some sort of walking lie detector, possibly even more powerful than Ino with her own near-telekinetic abilities. Unfortunately, he _still _didn't know how to directly counteract this.

Ino's mental barrier had either come naturally or it had come to her with the technique that her father had passed down to her. Either way, the odds that Shikamaru could learn it very quickly at this age was low. He had been raised to use the shadows like a Nara, and he would continue to use shadow-manipulation like a Nara.

But he would use his brain like the genius he was to overcome his other shortcomings. So far, he had gathered that Dumbledore could only look through his mind if he had direct face-to-face or eye-to-eye contact. Staring at the ground was a disgustingly obvious way to overcome this technique, but it was still somewhat effective.

"What do you want?" Shikamaru asked, annoyed by this man's mere presence.

"I'm just wondering how you and your companions are finding this castle," he said.

"It's fine," he said.

Unable to look at him face-to-face, Shikamaru suspiciously watched the old man's every movement through his skin. The headmaster's shadow rubbed his chin. "I've been wondering...have you found a solution to your werewolf dilemma?"

The genius almost looked up, but he caught himself, forcing himself to stare at the shadows. "I'm still thinking..."

"I have noticed that you directed Sakura to organize the potions section," Dumbledore said.

"It pleased her," the shinobi muttered. "She's a medic. She'd probably enjoy looking through the potions ingredients for things like the blood replenishing potion. Even if the potions _are_ sometimes made up of things like roach feces and the such. She finds the ingredient indexes amusing, actually."

"I suppose it is nice for a healer," Dumbledore said, nodding. "And I suppose that means you want Sakura to like you so she can 'put in a good word' to Ino, right?"

Shikamaru's head shot up, and he immediately regretted doing so, as his plan to completely avoid Dumbledore's eyes was ruined. He swore silently.

"Language, Shikamaru," he said with a smile. The blue twinkling eyes seemed to move through Shikamaru like an X-ray. "Now, it was obvious from our negotiations that you value Ino's life over the others' freedom and therefore Ino over them, and the two girls seem to be close friends. Therefore, you wanted Sakura to get you on Ino's good side."

Shikamaru's eyes widened slightly. He brought his eyes back down to his feet with a stony expression on his face. "Ah, you caught me, Dumbledore," he spat. "Ino's mad at me, and you know it. What other old news do you want to throw at me? What are you going to tell me next? This is a school of magic? We have nowhere to go? Kiba's in deep shit, as well as the rest of us?"

"Ah, how about the fact that Kiba plans to take a small vacation?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yeah, that was next on the list," Shikamaru muttered.

"You should—"

"You know," he said, loudly, "three years ago, I was at _home_. I was staring at the clouds, having a nice time doing _absolutely nothing_. One year ago, I was stressed out, but still able to relax, have a smoke, and stare at the sky in my spare time. _Now_, however, I'm finding difficulty trying to keep my friends together from panicking and getting arrested by the Ministry for attempted murder and harboring an unregistered werewolf. Or in Kiba's case, _being _the unregistered werewolf. And even if you have absolutely no intention of turning us in, there's still the problem that if you are no longer there to hide us, _we_ are dead meat."

"You and I are alike," Dumbledore mused. "Don't worry about what happens when I die. I have a successor to continue my work."

"Oh joy," Shikamaru said. "In other words, '_don't worry_, when I die, I'll appoint someone _new_ to _lord over you_', is that right?"

"In a way," Dumbledore said. "Though I hardly doubt that he would abuse his authority over—"

"You know, _next time_, don't say 'don't worry' like you're _trying to help us_," he snapped.

The old man sighed. "I know when I'm not wanted. I'll leave you be."

'_Then why didn't you just leave us alone before?_' Shikamaru wondered. '_We didn't want you _before _either. Things were going _well_ for us then_...'

The headmaster got up and left the Great Hall. Shikamaru lit a new cigarette and pulled the map out of his pocket. He stared at the tiny figures on the map and spotted Kiba leaving their rooms, which he found rather odd, considering the fact that he was still supposed to be on patrol.

Shikamaru paused, suddenly remembering Dumbledore's previous statement.

"_...Ah, how about the fact that Kiba plans to take a small vacation?"_ he had asked.

Oh crap, Dumbledore was trying to tell him something.

Kiba was jumping ship.

And Shikamaru needed to stop him before it happened. He had forgotten to tell the others _why_ they couldn't leave the normal way. Shikamaru got up to his feet. He put two fingers to his lips and whistled four short consecutive times. A few moments later, one of the sparrows flew to him.

"Rakusa, get this to Sakura," he said, scribbling a quick note and tying it to the bird as he ran out into the hallway and, before leaving out the Entrance Hall.

The Inuzuka was already making his way outside. According to the map, Sakura was already quickly making her way towards Shikamaru. He turned around and saw a familiar pink head in the distance, as well as Sai, who must have been in the library with her as well.

"Sakura! Sai!" he said.

"What is it?" Sakura asked as she and Sai ran alongside Shikamaru.

"Kiba and Akamaru are trying to leave," he muttered as they ran to intercept their possibly first 'missing-nin' of the group.

And, with everything that was going on, finding the closest available shinobi, Shikamaru didn't have any time to register the small figure on the map that was already moving to intercept Kiba.

-

Ron and Hermione were watching him from the window Gryffindor tower, ready to call for a teacher if needed. Of course, they didn't really see him under the Invisibility Cloak, but it was added insurance that they could probably call a teacher or something if it seemed things were getting too wild for an invisible man to deal with..

Harry prided himself on his ability to sneak around in the darkness. After living with the Dursley's for so long, Harry had gained the ability to move quietly, yet at a steady pace. This talent was most useful at times when he was sneaking out to grab a bit to eat or when Dudley and his friends were chasing him around.

Now, at seventeen, he had mastered the art of running in complete silence.

Then again, Harry was amazed by _Kiba's _speed.

He had seen the man leave the castle. Harry had already been waiting outside, prepared to cut him off, but Kiba came from a different exit, so Harry was forced to run and catch up.

Harry had the head start, but the man was already much further ahead, and it seemed that he was moving just as quietly with a huge lumbering dog by his side.

All of a sudden, dozens of large creatures ran past Harry without a single sound.

Was he deaf or something?

So many of them moving in absolute silence!

How could they move so quickly without a single sound?-!

'_Wait a minute_,' Harry thought to himself, pausing slightly in his pursuit, only to continue at a greater speed. '_...What the hell were those things anyway?_'

From behind, they looked almost like swirly ink paintings, only they were moving. After almost seven complete years (though technically just six) of living in the wizarding world, Harry was no stranger to moving pictures, but moving pictures that weren't even pictures?

This was getting confusing.

Harry saw a flash of pink amongst the creatures that were pursuing Kiba, and he realized that there were actually three people amongst the stampede of ink creatures.

"Kiba!" a woman cried.

The brown-haired man turned his head slightly, saw the army of inky creatures, and ran faster.

From the crowd of ink creatures rose a dark-haired man riding on some sort of monstrous animal that resembled the lion-dragons that 'guarded' Buddhist temples. With a scroll in one hand, he seemed to scribble something across the page, and a countless number of small black objects swooped down and swarmed Kiba and his dog.

After a moment of fruitlessly fending off the creatures with his arms, the man shouted. "_Tsūga_ ("Piercing Fang")!"

Harry's eye's widened when both Kiba and the dog suddenly spun around towards his pursuers and spun like a blurred tornado, directly towards the group.

What the hell was this?

The next thing Harry knew, the three pursuers were jumping back to their feet with large puddles of ink staining the grass.

They were all shouting at each other. From afar, he recognized Sai as well.

"Shikamaru!" Sakura said to the other man, the one with the pony-tail. They were all talking in Japanese, and Harry didn't understand a word they said.

Then they started fighting, and Harry still didn't understand what was going on.

-

"What a waste..." Sai said thoughtfully, toeing the ink-stained grass at his feet.

"It's just ink," Sakura said to him.

"I'm not talking about the ink," Sai said, looking up at Kiba with a stare so strong, he might as well have been pointing at the Inuzuka.

"I heard that!" Kiba said, pointing accusingly at Sai. "Bastard!"

"Mutt."

Kiba growled in response to that, though that probably only served to prove Sai's point.

"Kiba!" Sakura shouted. "Why are you doing this?" she said.

"It's not what it looks like!" he said quickly.

"It looks like you're running away," Sai said thoughtfully.

"...Okay, it's _sort of_ what it looks like!"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm getting help!" he said.

"He doesn't know what he's saying," Shikamaru muttered.

"You don't know what you're saying!" Sakura relayed to Kiba.

"He's hiding something huge that I _need_ to know!" the Inuzuka shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Shikamaru.

"_Shikamaru_," Sakura said. "Is this true?"

"I'll tell you the whole truth when I can _get_ the whole truth," Shikamaru muttered.

"I'm a werewolf, aren't I?" Kiba demanded.

"We don't know for sure," he replied. "Just calm down, stay here, and we'll figure things out."

"I'm—I'm rabid! You guys are going to, going to put me down or something?"

"Do we look like idiots to you?" Sai asked logically. "A werewolf sounds a lot better than a dog. If you're stronger, you're useful, and if you're useful, we're not going to do something stupid like 'putting you down'. Unless we're stupid, that is. ...Thinking about that now, it's _entirely _possible that we may put you down."

"Don't you try to logic yourself out of _this one_, Sai!" Kiba said, giving him with an accusing glare.

"You're not making any sense," he shrugged.

"And if you're not trying to screw me over, then why'd you attack me?" Kiba said angrily.

"We, uh, wanted to get your attention!" Sakura said.

"Well you could've said 'Hey, Kiba, listen to us and wait a second!' You didn't have to throw a freaking huge mob of _ink monsters _at me!"

"This... coming from the guy who nearly killed us after a mission when you thought we were leaving you behind..." Sai commented casually, referring to an earlier episode in which the group was making their getaway in a high speed police chase...

...when out of bloody nowhere, Kiba hit their ride (a stolen vehicle with the shinobi and their stolen valuables for their client inside) with a Gatsuuga, thinking that the others were ditching him.

"Oh, _shut up_, Sai! Anyway, if Shikamaru can't figure out whatever it is he's trying to figure out _and_ is going aroundstopping us from trying to help him by _hiding information_, then I'll go and find it myself!"

"Just so you know," Shikamaru said, taking a deep breath to calm himself, "you can _not_ just leave as simply as that."

"_Tsūga_!" Kiba used his rotating attack once again and everyone dove out of the way.

On terms of raw power, Kiba was the strongest, and no one was willing to try to take on the spinning technique.

Of course, Sakura slowly began to realize, it wasn't as if Kiba was _trying_ to hurt them. The first attack had destroyed only the ink clones, and even now, he hadn't used the Shikyaku no Jutsu (Beast Mimicry: Four Legs Technique) or the Jūjin Bunshin (Beast Human Clone). Instead of causing direct injury with claws and teeth, Kiba was resorting to fighting barehanded, risking only bruises and, at most, broken bones.

Then again, Kiba may not have been willing to seriously injure his friends, but Sakura, Shikamaru, and Sai weren't willing to fight back at full power either.

Well, Sakura and Shikamaru weren't.

Sai was crazy, so he would probably actually do something incredibly heartless or something like that.

"You can't leave!" Sakura shouted as Kiba continued to attack.

"Of course not! Not until you guys stop _following_ me!"

"Sakura's right, even if she doesn't understand why," Shikamaru said, making no move to counterattack. Kiba stopped.

"What do you mean?"

"Just don't move. You're right on the border of Hogwarts, and if you cross the invisible line, you will _sorely_ regret the consequences," he said seriously. "Now come... back... slowly..."

Kiba glared at Shikamaru again. "You're lying. There's nothing over here to be afraid of! My smell has gotten even stronger, and there's _nothing_ here! Akamaru!"

Both Kiba and Akamaru turned to make a break for it.

"...You _both _are idiots! You can't smell mag—!" Shikamaru said, hastily making a handseal. A shadow shot across the ground towards Kiba, but it reached him a split second too late, managing to establish the shadow connection between Shikamaru and Kiba, but unable to prevent him from crossing the invisible line that prevented enemies from invading the castle and Hogwarts residents from leaving it.

Kiba jolted, twitching as if he were being shocked, and hit the ground. Akamaru, who hadn't hit the invisible barrier at full force, let out a sharp yelp and whined.

Shikamaru, who had been forced on the ground when Kiba had (via his shadow copying technique), released his shadow the moment he had recovered from the sudden impact with the ground as well. Sakura and Sai ran forward to see their friend.

"Kiba! Are you alright?" Sakura asked. Her hand glowed green and she held it over Kiba. "He's been shocked."

"...It's like an electric fence," Sai said thoughtfully.

"That's not funny!"

Shikamaru rubbed his head and knelt by Sakura and Kiba.

"Dumbledore warned me not to let anyone off the grounds, but he didn't say it would do _that_," he muttered. "I think that the further you pass the line, the more of a shock you'll get. Is he alright?"

"He'll be fine. Probably twitchy for a few hours after he wakes up," Sakura said, removing her hand. "We've been through worse, so Kiba'll definitely make it."

"He's a rash idiot," Sai said with a frown.

"Well, he was probably freaking out. I mean, he did mention being worried a week ago," Sakura said. "And now, the moment he's determined enough to accept the possibility of werewolf contamination and learn out more about it, he doesn't find any information at all. I guess with a mixture of panic and logic, he figured that it would help to find a real werewolf and question him. Which, according to what he mentioned, he might have actually known a real one... By the way, did you really hide the books in the library, Shikamaru?" Sakura asked.

"I want to make a solid plan before letting anyone else start making half-formed wild guesses as to what we need to do..."

"Do about what?"

"I'll tell you later."

Sakura frowned, but didn't say anything. "So long as you don't get any more of us killed, we're not going to revolt, you know." Shikamaru looked at her, and Sakura turned red. "Any... of us... I mean," she muttered, looking at Kiba's unconscious body.

Ooh, how she wanted to kick the foolish boy for making everyone go on edge! Their whole situation was depressing enough with Shikamaru striking some secret deal with Dumbledore to keep them out of the old man's hands...and then Kiba just _had _to make the situation worse, panicking and causing everyone else to panic!

The nerve of him! ...Or lack thereof.

But even Sakura had to admit that Kiba had a perfectly reasonable excuse for attempting to leave. If he was that big of a danger to the group, who knew what would happen?

Shikamaru sighed. "After this is all over, I plan on taking a long vacation," he said almost wistfully, pulling out the map in his pocket out of curiosity, looking to see where Dumbledore was.

He paused.

According to the map, someone was standing right behind him.

"Something wrong, Shikamaru?" Sakura asked.

"No. Nothing." But all of a sudden, twisting his upper body, he spun around and threw a knife directly behind him. It flew far until it hit a distant tree.

"...What was that for?" Sai asked.

"..." Shikamaru frowned, looking back at the map, where it said that someone was still standing by him. He thrust his hand out and batted at the air, as if feeling for an invisible enemy.

Sakura looked at him, concern etched into her eyes. "...Shikamaru?"

"Eh, it's nothing," he muttered, stuffing the map back in the pocket of his vest. "Let's go. Bring Kiba back to his room. I guess I'll talk with him and clear things up. Just... we'll never bring any of this up again, alright?"

Sakura and Sai nodded. "Right."

-

Harry stood there, stunned and speechless as the strange group left.

So many things... happening at once...

Down on the ground, there were huge track marks where Kiba had torn through the ground as he attacked his friends.

There were large ink marks staining the ground.

The person known as Shikamaru had nearly killed him, throwing a knife right past his head.

And luckily, Harry ducked a split second before the man blindly swiped at his head, as if confused by the lack of Harry's presence.

And, of course, when Harry ducked, he got a good look at the suspiciously familiar piece of parchment in his hand.

Harry had seen it earlier from a distance, but he hadn't been sure until now.

And now, with the man directly facing him, grabbing at the air above his head, Harry saw the piece of parchment up close.

It was the Marauder's Map.

-

(1) Baki is one of the sparrow's names. It's Kiba's sparrow. For all of them, they just reversed the letters of the name so Kiba is Baki.  
Kiba—Baki  
Sakura—Rakusa  
Naruto—Toruna  
Shikamaru—Rumakashi  
Sai—Isa  
Ino—Noi  
Neji—Jine  
I can't tell if any of that is actually going to come into play though...

**My Thinking Corner**

Man, I've been a lot busier than I expected this summer. It's been way too long...

To those of you whom I speak to online, sorry I haven't been on too much recently. I'm just avoiding you. XD Just kidding, just kidding. To tell you the truth, I'm avoiding one person in particular. I finally managed to break up with someone. We went out _once_, which is, apparently, enough to be considered "an official relationship". I felt really bad.

Summer is usually my time of solitude, where I can get away from everyone and pretend I don't exist anymore. People usually get annoyed because once school gets out, I just stop picking up the phone.

But I _haven't _been sitting on my ass playing Minesweeper all day long. I've been sitting on my ass playing Minesweeper and writing. I've started my own story. An original thing. I'm not sure if it's called fanfiction or whatever... I've also started several other crossovers. My favorite, after Stranded, would probably be Maelstrom. Then there's the TLOTOOTP, which is currently going over a number of name changes. In other words, to those of you who guessed or tried to guess the name... sorry. It's not the name anymore. But, um... pm me again if you pmed me first. I kinda lost about half the Pms you guys sent me, so... if you want, you can send me your guesses again, and I'll see if it's right or not. Doesn't really matter much to me though.

Anyway, aside from sleeping, watching anime, reading stories, Mapling (level 71!!), and playing uh... Minesweeper and Freecell, I spent half the summer cleaning up dog poo. And pee. And sometimes vomit.

That's right! We've got two dogs! They're puppy huskies (the normal ones, not the malamuts, or however they're spelled). The older one is named Shadow Bandit, the second is White Knight. Knight was the first one to escape the pen. Apparently, if you leave the lower hookie thing unlocked, he can slip out under the door. So then, we started making extra sure that all three hooks were completely secured.

Now, about a week ago, we come home to find they've gotten loose (and caused quite a bit of damage -.-). As it turns out... we've got a bunch of miniature furry escape artists on our hands because you know what?

THEY CAN OPEN DOORS.

My babies are geniuses! ((does a hughes)).

Now, we gotta tie the cage shut so they don't get past the locking hook thing.

Oh, oh, oh, there's also been a leak, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released to the public four days ahead of schedule! Unfortunately, it wasn't in the traditional book way. Someone working at the American Publishing Company (or something like that) managed to sneak a book out or something. He took pictures of every single page in the book and posted it online! At first, I didn't believe this news. And then someone I knew ruined it for me (curse you, you queerdo!). Next thing I knew, I spent the next seven hours in front of said person's laptop reading the Harry Potter book. Now, I'm feeling freaking awesome ((though laden with guilt at having technically stolen a book, but I'm buying it anyway to make up for it)) because the story is almost exactly like my most recent planned crossover "Maelstrom". The only difference is the beginning, the interchangeable person who died (OH GOD BLANK BLANK BLANK BLANK BLANK BLANK BLANK AND BLANK DIED!) and the duration of it all. It's the same as mine, only Harry's seventeen in JKR's story! Mine is basically partly the same, only they're a bit older and they meet Naruto... and some people don't die. And stuff happen. Okay, so it's not as close as it sounds, but a whole bunch of stuff I did were right on the mark! I've been giddy for days. Inspiring myself to finally post this chapter (-.-).

**Review Responses: **

silent reader: Thank you! As for the shinobi... yeah, they're going to try and get back into shape. I mean, Ino can't even run in heels anymore! Harry won't find out much for a while. Um... I actually don't feel like pulling up the calender, but around the end of October or early November... I can't really remember. And no, I don't think Malfoy's going to be returning to school any time soon.

dark672: Haha, alright, alright, I just wasn't sure and stuff. Besides, it's nice and short and I usually only spend less than a minute responding (which really does save a lot of time, compared to the amount of time I usually end up spending on other reviews).

IshtarFish: Thanks! Though I have a hard time believing that Dumbledore was _always_ a nice old man. After all, he had to have been young sometime, right? Anyway, things aren't all as they seem.

Emi: Yep. Neji was the guy drunk off butterbeer in the Great Hall. It's out of character, but I couldn't help it. Standing joke. Er... running joke? I'm not quite sure which is which.

Peter Kim: To tell you the truth, there is another player on the field that has yet to been introduced (their time will come at the last few chapters). Anyway, you should remember that Zabini only played on Malfoy's side for a brief moment. To keep Voldemort from reading his mind, Zabini had Malfoy Obliviate him, remember? Now, Zabini (as well as Crabbe and Goyle) works solely for Voldemort.

Miako: I live down in Texas. ...And no, I do not talk with an accent (though a while back, someone did say I had some sort of an English accent... weird). Thanks for reviewing! Oh, and thank you for your concern in the second review. As you can see from my thinking corner, I've been having a pretty busy summer so far. I've also been having a few personal and/or familial issues.

anonymous: Thank you! The Akatsuki will always be villains in my heart (bows head slightly). Anyway, it's not only Tobi and Deidara. The members present in this world will slowly be (re)introduced in the story. However, I can assure one thing for certain: it will _not_ have Itachi. I don't mean to offend anyone, but he's just... he's _everywhere_! Is there ever an Akatsuki story that does _not _have him? He's like the thing that wouldn't go away. Or a roach. Anyway, after the Akatsuki find out that Malfoy is with the Konoha-nin, they pretty much don't care about him anymore. It's like losing a rock and finding a jewel. One that you're going to dispose of, anyway.

celtic-pride: I'm glad you liked it. Sorry about how it was confusing. I'll probably try to tie the chapters together better next time. Anyway, I've actually screwed up my sleeping schedule. Biological clock? No that's not the word... um... started with a C. Cicada rhythms? ...Heck no. Meh, I'll think of it later.

Liz: I can't believe I keep missing that! Aaaaah! You're not the first person to have told me of this (no offense), but I still keep on forgetting to fix that!

nightDREAMERms: Well, the thing is that I see Kiba and Sakura as the more... familiar members of the group. Kiba seems like a brotherly guy, and Sakura as the sisterly girl. ...That sound weird? And no... I'm really glad you pointed that out. (falls over) Gotta fix that now... Oh, and I can believe you're saying that. I like this story more than my other crossover as well. As for the anime laws... no offense, but that seems vaguely inappropriate... (shudders) If there are two things I can't stand in the world, it's vomit and babies. Mainly because I've been cleaning up dog vomit for a while (Knight's got a weak stomach -.-), and babies are... well, to tell you the truth, they kinda scare me... (scratches head).

And there you have it, folks. I started writing review responses at seven. It is now 1:24 AM. Thank you for the ridiculously huge amount of reviews. (it's a joke, but I'm not being sarcastic: I do love the reviews!)


	13. Chapter 12

**HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!**

Chapter 12: Untitled? ((couldn't think of anything x.x))

"He has it!" Harry said vehemently, attempting to control his rage. He, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were in their usual place in the common room after most of the others had already gone to bed. "He has my map!"

"Maybe he found it?" Ron said.

"The odds are unlikely," Hermione said, shaking her head. "The only way for them to have gotten the map is for them to have been or have encountered those who attacked Hogwarts. And if they simply met and took the map from the intruders, then... the coincidence would be almost unbelievable. And don't forget, Kiba resembles the man who attacked Hogwarts during the summer, and so does Shikamaru. I'm almost _positive_ that these people had broken into Hogwarts."

"But why would Dumbledore let them into the school if they attacked it before?" Ginny asked. "These people could be dangerous..."

"Yeah. He wants me to meet with him later so he could teach me about whatever secret weapon he has and how to use it, so I'm planning on asking him then," Harry muttered darkly. "Hopefully before they get away with hurting someone."

((A/N: Yeah right. Cough, cough...))

"Well... we can't really tell for sure whether these guys are_actually_ the ones who attacked or not," Hermione said.

"But you just said—!"

"I know, I know, from all the guesses, we can _infer_ that they were the enemy," she said, holding up her hands. "But we need _solid_ evidence. Like I said earlier, I'm _almost_positive."

"But we _never_ get solid evidence. And the times we do, we use it wrong," Ron joked.

Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You're the pureblood, yet you're the one underestimating the extent of magic." She suddenly got up to her feet and ran out of the room.

"..." Everyone stared after her.

"...She's _your_ girlfriend," Ginny said.

"Well don't expect _me_ to understand..." Ron shrugged. "Mind reading is _not_ my forte."

But moments later, Hermione returned with a small plastic bag.

"I have here in my hand," she announced, "a little something left behind by the intruders. Harry, when the intruder carrying his companion ran over and tripped over you in your invisibility cloak, do you remember anything remotely important happening?"

"Uh... no," he answered, looking rather unsure.

Hermione frowned. "Well, it's a small thing anyway. This here is a bag of _broken beads_."

They all stared at her.

"So?"

Despite the frustrated sigh, it still seemed as if Hermione was enjoying her superiority over the other wizards.

"We have these beads. Now, all we need is a map, some research, and a _lot_ of practice," she said, "and we'll have a Location Spell ready to track down the people who attacked Hogwarts. If it leads back to that guy, we'll know for sure that he and his friends were the ones that did it."

-

"I have a really bad feeling..." Naruto muttered, scratching his head.

"Why?" Sakura said. "We only have that wizard fugitive from both sides of this wizarding war hiding with us in a house supplied to a guy who's blackmailing Shikamaru, who seems to be losing his procrastination by the hour, which is probably some sign of mental instability considering how much Shikamaru _loves_ being lazy. Neji's losing control over his chakra and Byakugan. You are_uncharacteristically sneaky_, letting Kiba try to leave and _not_ telling the rest of us, resulting in the unconscious _Barbeque-Kiba_ over here on the couch. Do you know what electrocution does to the body? It _zaps_ you. And apparently, we've got more evidence that Shikamaru's losing it, with him just to happening to forget to tell us the _tiny fact_ that one of Hogwarts' newest wards works like an _electric fence_.

"So now it seems we're trapped in Hogwarts unless we have official permission to leave. All progress that Sai has made on expressing emotions is starting to go back down the drain. Ino is convinced that she's gained three pounds, and it's probably _true_ for the rest of us because all of us here have screwed up training schedules because none of us have had any time or privacy to train without people figuring out we aren't their 'average human'.

"Of course, Ino's actually probably lost more than she's gained, considering the fact that we accidentally left her body _untended to_ for about two months with only Sai and Neji present for _some_ of that time, doing their best to steal some professor's potions so they could get the proper nutrients for her body and taking turns letting the other get _booby trapped_ by a magically warded potions cabinet so they could _get_ the potions... _Another_ mistake showing the stress going to Shikamaru's head—all of our heads, since none of us even considered how to keep Ino's body healthy while she was away. We are making more and more mistakes—_big_ones—in shorter periods of time. _Big_ mistakes, considering the fact that Ino nearly _starved_ to death from being outside of her body so long.

"Oh yeah, and did I mention that we're trapped in some kind of weird parallel dimension? Tell me, Naruto, did you _just _start feeling this '_bad feeling_' or has it just been growing the past few years that we got stuck here? Because if you're _just_ starting to feel the stress, _I envy you_."

Naruto was going to respond sheepishly to Sakura's weekly stress-relieving rave when he turned around to see another blond in the doorway.

"_Ugh, what do you want, Malfoy?_" he asked in English.

"_Haruno's speech woke me up_," Malfoy said, yawning. "_Do you ever realize how unbelievably loud you could be in the middle of the night?_"

"_Do you ever realize how unbelievably loud you could be at _four in the morning" Naruto shot back. "_Why the hell do you have to wake up at four in the morning just to wash your hair? You could always do it in the middle of the day. It's not as if you_do_ anything during the day_."

"_What can I say_?" he said, shrugging. He went through their refrigerator and pulled out a glass of milk. "_I'm a creature of habit_."

"_You're a creature alright_," Naruto said. "_But whatever kind you are, I'm not sure ...but I'm sure it's something akin to a high-pitched, squealing, girly, lying little pest_."

"_Malfoy, what do you _really_ want_?" Sakura interrupted, before their squabble could go on too long. "_If my shouting woke you up, all you had to do is ask the castle to soundproof the walls or something_."

Draco Malfoy paused. "..._I saw it_," he said.

"_Saw what_?" Sakura asked, confused.

"_You guys fight!_" he said, an eye twitching. "_Through the window. It... it was amazing! You guys aren't wizards, but you sure as bloody hell aren't some bloody Muggles! If you fight that well against each other, why couldn't you manage to kill an old man? Or at the very least, _break his hip"

"_Are you yelling at us or are you impressed?_" Naruto asked, resisting the urge to beat the crap out of the fellow blond. "_My reaction to you depends solely on your answer_."

"_Both!_"

"_You do realize that this whole situation is entirely your fault, right?_" Sakura asked.

"_How is it my fault?_" he asked.

"_You gave us the wrong information. And you set us up for a job that we were ill-suited for,_" she said.

"_You wouldn't take the job if you knew Dumbledore was powerful_."

"_Of course we wouldn't have. _Yeah_, you were a desperate guy in dire need of help, but you didn't have to drag us down with you. In fact, as much as I hate to admit it, Dumbledore is the one in the right here. He was attacked by us, and now he's taking us in. He didn't have to, of course, and we didn't want him to, but he's doing it anyway. We despise this, but it is beneficial for others. We would all do the same thing._"

"_Really?_" Naruto said.

"_Maybe I'm just assuming things, but Dumbledore is using whatever he can to end this war as quickly as he could. That means using what tools he has at hand. You, Malfoy, were doing what you could do to save your family. You lied, cheated, and did god knows what to try and kill Dumbledore so you could save those closest to you. I'm guessing Dumbledore is just exploiting us so he could save those closest to himself. ...As well as half the wizarding population and the world in general. And we... we won't hesitate to do whatever we can do to preserve what's important to us: ourselves. We took this job for money. We want the money so we could live safely. Let's face it, people are generally the same: save what's most valuable to them, whether it's family, friends, or themselves._"

"_You're making it too hard to blame Dumbledore for everything_," Draco muttered darkly.

"_It's so much easier to just pin the blame on the old man_," Naruto whined at the same time.

The two blonds stared at each other.

"_Noooo...!_" they both shouted. They were thinking on the same wavelength! ...And they still were! "_...Aaaaaaah!_"

"_You guys are both idiots as well,_" Sakura said thoughtfully.

"_Oh, this is an attack in so many ways,_" Naruto muttered, holding his head as if he were about to cry. "_I can't really defend myself._"

-

Classes so far were not going very well for a certain Defense Against Dark Arts teacher.

Viktor sighed, glancing out the window and wincing as a first-year on a broomstick took off from the ground at an uncontrolled pace, only to return to the earth as suddenly as he had left.

Those _amateurs_.

...Those _lucky_ amateurs.

Viktor would willingly give up an arm to take a break from the classroom and play Quidditch outside in the sun.

Was teaching as difficult as he had feared?

Of course.

Was it worth it?

_Certainly_...

He thought about the pink-haired girl he had met at the wand shop, as well as the group she had been with. Viktor had been surprised to see the long-haired man teaching divination, and he had caught glimpses of the others in the hallways. According to students, Sakura and Shikamaru worked in the library.

This altogether puzzled Viktor. According to Eskariot, though he had fit them all with the most suitable wands, several members of the group had been completely unresponsive to the magic.

That meant that it was possible that some of them were Muggles.

And if they were Muggles... then why were they at Hogwarts?

Viktor Krum sat up immediately. Not because he had a sudden epiphany—though he did wish that he had—but more like because, as students began to enter his classroom, he realized that Her... Herm... Herm-own-ninee was in this class.

Students, like in every single class so far, were chattering excitedly as they picked their seats, and he, like in every single class so far, suddenly felt like he swallowed a rock.

"Hullo..." he said. Some students watched him with interest akin to that of a person watching an animal at a zoo (or a celebrity sports figure teaching at a school), and others didn't hear his voice over the murmuring. "_'Ello_," he said in a much firmer voice, finally catching everyone's complete attention.

"_Hi_..." many girls responded in breathy voices.

Every... single... class.

"I vuld like to say velcome to my first class," he said nervously. "You are all in your seffen year, so I suppose you all have a firm grip on Defense and Dark Arts, no?"

"Uh... depends on what you mean by 'firm' and what you mean by 'you'," one student said. Viktor turned to him. The boy looked up at Viktor Krum with adoration. A quidditch fan.

"Vat is it that you mean by that?" he asked.

"Uh, heh," the boy said nervously. "Our classes have been a bit... on-and-off, if you know what I mean..."

Viktor shook his head apologetically. "No, I don't, Mister...?"

"Finnegan. Seamus Finnegan."

"Okay. I don't understand what you mean, Mr. Finnegan."

"Well, we keep on having good teachers, then bad teachers, and good teachers again," Hermione's red-haired friend said. Ron Weasley, wasn't it?

"We only had one real good teacher who didn't turn out to be evil or crazy," Harry argued.

"Well, there was Professor Lupin, and then there was you," Hermione said, turning to her friend.

"I was more like a tutor..." Harry said.

"Well, you were better than _Umbridge_," she said. Hermione turned back to Viktor. "We've covered jinxes in our first year, magical creatures in our second and third year, curses in our fourth year, theory from our teacher and practical magic from Harry in our fifth year, and silent spells last year. The jinxes in our first year weren't too great. Our second year was a joke, but our third year teacher more than made up for it. We only learned about major curses in our fourth year, and most of us have had no luck with the wordless magic."

"Thank you," Viktor said, smiling at Hermione. But he paused. Not because of the onslaught of sighs and glares that Hermione received for this attention, but because of Weasley boy's red face.

...Viktor had a sneaking suspicion that Ron was the 'crush' whom Hermione had sent him so many letters about.

"I suppose ve vill go back over the basics of jinxes, a few curses, and then silent spells," Viktor continued to the class. "I plan to teach you 'ow to use and defend yourself from them. When ve finish refewing those topics, we will practice dueling and uzzer such sings.

"Jinxes—also known as hexes—are spells cast to cause damage or some uzzer negative effect. Jinx is like a curse, but usually not as strong or cast with as negative intention. Jinxes can used in both offensiff and defensiff situations. Jinxes are removed or undone by counter-jinx, though some say zat vurd is just a name people giff jinx when they vant to make them sound more acceptable. ...But that is not important. At times like this, no one care about names.

"The first jinx I teach you today is fun jinx. I call 'finger removing' jinx, vich is useful if you, for some reason, are unable to properly stun the opponent..."

-

"Well that was certainly fascinatin—"

"_He still likes you_," Ron said firmly to Hermione, cutting her off in mid-sentence.

"Ron, if you emphasize that one more time, I will personally remove your fingers," she said sternly. "I am completely aware that Viktor and I were once a couple. _However_, that is all in the past. I made that clear to him when I turned down his offer to visit his summer home in the summer before our fifth year."

"Apparently, it wasn't clear enough," Ron muttered.

"What do you mean by that?" Hermione demanded.

"C'mon, Hermione, why do you think he's even here?"

"Because he's on a break from Quidditch and wants to contribute to the war against prejudice?" she said scathingly. "People _can_ be sincere about things, just so you know."

"Hermione, why on earth would he take a break from Quidditch? He's famous for it!"

"Well, with all the attacks lately, I'm sure that no one else is interested in sports right now. These are dark times. He's probably not making as much money, _plus_ it's nice to help people learn how to defend themselves!"

"Guys!" Harry said, growing tired of hearing them argue. "Just... stop arguing with each other. Okay. Let's just bring everything out into the open: Viktor likes Hermione, Ron's jealous. That's all that we need to know, now get over it!"

"Well _you're_ in a bad mood..." Ron muttered.

"You would be too if someone stole the legacy your father, godfather, and their best friend left for you," he muttered, as they briskly marched down the hallways.

"Say, where are we going anyway?" the Weasley asked.

"Library. I'm confronting these bastards and I'm getting my map back!" Harry declared, as they stopped in front of the library. He opened the door and immediately looked out for the dark haired librarian, only to find himself taken aback by several factors.

One, there were no stacks of books obstructing his view. And two, despite the sudden organization of the library, he _still_ couldn't find the two new librarians.

"Excuse me," Hermione said, walking up to Madame Pince, who was sitting dazed in a chair, somewhere stuck between euphoric or just plain empty-headed. "Did you clean the entire library yourself?"

The answer was obvious enough, but Hermione wanted a proper and subtler way to pry into their business.

Madame Pince slowly shook her head. "No... I came here and found that the two new librarians had done it for me..."

"Really?" Hermione said, with false surprise. "All by themselves overnight?"

"Yes," Pince said, looking just as amazed yet completely genuine.

"That's amazing. But they couldn't have possibly used magic, with all of the charms on the books to preserve and save them from aging, right? I mean, I thought preservation charms react badly to all sorts of magic..."

"They do. These two and their friends, they did it _without_ magic."

"_Wow_," Hermione said brightly. "Where are they now?"

"Ah... they went walking outside," she said, pointing towards the door. "I do think they passed Hagrid's hut though."

"Okay, thank you," Hermione said, smiling at the formerly cross librarian before leaving.

Harry and Ron followed Hermione outside of the castle.

"They're outside?" Ron said, looking around.

"Apparently. That's what Madame Pince told me," she said, scanning the area. "She said that they might be visiting Hagrid this evening."

"Maybe they're looking for information? I mean, Hagrid _does_ have a bit of a loose tongue, right?" Harry said, heading for the hut, which had thick black fumes pouring out of the chimney, meaning that Hagrid was making either an afternoon tea or more of his horrid cooking for dinner. Sometimes, they really wished he's get a real cookbook. Or an actual cook.. They walked up to the doorway and knocked on the door.

"Hey, Hagrid!" Ron bellowed, knocking on the door. "It's us! Can you open up?"

"Hold on...!" they heard him bellow inside the hut. "'ey, can yeh get the door fer me?"

"Sure thing, Mr. Hagrid!" they heard someone young reply.

They were greeted by a tall blonde with whisker-like marks on his cheeks, covered in a brown rust-like substance. Dried blood? They backed away, despite the inviting door and the man's friendly blue eyes.

"Hiya, guys," the man said cheerfully, scratching the side of his head. Harry noticed that he wore dragon hide gloves and long sleeves even in weather as warm as this—almost like Neji. "You all must be Harry, Hermione, and Ron! Hagrid's told me a lot about you."

His voice was familiar...

"Yeah," Harry said. "Who are _you_?"

"Sorry, it was impolite of me..." he said with a short laugh. "My name's Naruto! You coming in? You three always make yourselves at home here anyway..."

Naruto...? The name was familiar as well.

"You're one of the guys guarding Hogwarts, aren't you?" Harry said casually.

"Uh, yeah, how'd you know?" the blonde said, rather curiously. "I made extra sure that no one saw me patrolling in the hallways. Man, did I mess up _already_...?"

"No, but...you're just, uh, not dressed like a normal student," Hermione said.

Naruto looked down at his black robes and their black robes.

"Okay, I admit, the styles are a _little_ different," Naruto said, "but it's not _that_ different."

"You don't have a tie," Hermione said, pointing at her red and gold Gryffindor tie. "All houses have them. Gryffindor has red and gold, Slytherin has green and silver, Ravenclaw has bronze and blue, and Hufflepuff gets yellow and black."

"Ah yeah," Naruto said. "Those poor Hufflepuffs... From what I've heard, they _really _get the short end of the stick. I mean, first they aren't considered cunning, intelligent, or brave. Instead, they get stuck with 'loyal', which technically can qualify under Gryffindor. And there's gold, silver, bronze, and, what,_yellow_? They could at least say brass or something."

"Hey," Ron said suddenly. "Is that dried _blood_ on your shirt?"

Naruto looked at the crusty brown substance on his shirt, which was dry and almost rusty looking.

"I hope not. I was helping Hagrid make _salad_. What kind of salad do _you_ eat?" he asked, sniffing the mysterious stain on his shirt and wrinkling his nose slightly at the smell.

The Golden Trio looked behind him and spotted Hagrid by the fireplace. ...Boiling the salad in a cauldron.

"You know, I always thought salads were meant to be eaten natural and plain, but boy, you Europeans proved me wrong," he said with a grin.

"You're not from England?"

"I came from Japan," the man announced proudly.

"That's a long way from Hogwarts..." Hermione said. "You came all the way here just for a job as a night guard?"

"Well, I didn't want to stay alone in Japan or something," he said, almost uncomfortably. "It's nice back home, but everyone was coming here to work. A favor for the old man, y'see? Shikamaru—the library guy—was the first to take up the job offer, and so his girlfriend came, and _then_ his girlfriend's best friend—which just so happens to be my best friend and possibly my worst friend's best friend—came to help out her best friend and her best friend's boy friend, and then after that, my depressed friend came too because he needed a job or some hobby to occupy his time with, and then there's my other friend and his dog who came because the only two girls in the group were leaving, and then there's the _last _guy, who I think just came out here with us out of peer pressure, but I can't be too sure because he's a complete pain in the ass who might have just come to bother us."

"Huh?" Ron scrunched his face up, trying to follow the list of people.

"We're a chain of people following each other to England," Naruto said, summing it all up in one uncomplicated sentence.

"Oh," Hermione said. "So... how long have you been in Europe?"

"Uh... few months?" Naruto said.

"You learned English very quickly," she said, looking sincerely impressed by this feat.

"Heh, you wouldn't believe how many ka—copies of books I had to borrow," Naruto said, changing words in mid-sentence. "You could say, it took a hundred of me to learn English!"

He laughed.

"I don't get it," Ron said slowly.

Naruto sighed. "Yeah, you probably wouldn't."

"So, where are your friends?"

"Why do you need to know? Oh, Kiba didn't pee on your lawn—er... property, did he? I keep on telling him to keep that thing to himself but he just doesn't liste—"

"_No_," Hermione said, shaking her head quickly. "We were just wondering how you managed to reorganize the Hogwarts library in less than a week! It's probably almost a century of disorder that Shikamaru and Sakura sorted through!"

"I helped last night too!" Naruto said cheerfully. "And Kiba. And Akamaru. Anyway, let's just say... I'm worth a lot of people!"

He laughed.

"I don't get it," Ron said.

Naruto sighed. "Yeah, you probably wouldn't."

"And I have a feeling of déjà vu..." Harry said thoughtfully.

"Just out of curiosity," Hermione said to Naruto, "is this your first time coming to Hogwarts?"

"Huh?"

"Your first time," she said patiently to the blank look on Naruto's face. "Have you ever been to Hogwarts before?"

"I've never attended this school," he said, smiling at her charmingly. "I do wish I had though. It seemed a lot more fascinating than the academy back home."

"How so?" she asked.

"Well, back home, we... well, the younger students focused mostly on increasing their physical strength. Once you are assigned an instructor, the instructor will teach you and two others in your three-man 'team' how to use our, uh, spirit... energy... thing."

"Right," Hermione said. "Called _magic_."

"Oh, yeah, um... forgot the English equivalent there for a moment," he said. "Hm, you know what? I think I hear someone calling me. Bye guys!"

Naruto quickly got up, but Hagrid stopped him.

"Wait, but you didn't try any of my rock cakes!" the half-giant protested.

"Oh yeah, um, sorry I couldn't stay to enjoy it!" he said apologetically.

"Here, have one to eat on the go," Hagrid said, kindly thrusting a piece of gray slab-like chunk in Naruto's hands. The blond grinned genuinely at him.

"Thanks, Mr. Hagrid! Bye!"

The Golden Trio watched as the blond sprinted outside in the grass, stumbling slightly after making the mistake of trying to eat a piece of Hagrid's infamous rock cake whole. They watched, mildly concerned as he gagged on the ground, but the blond made a quick recovery and was, once again, on his way towards the castle.

-

Naruto knew he would have to leave the moment that he saw the three Hogwarts students heading towards the hut. The kage bunshin hidden outside disappeared, informing both the original Naruto as well as the one other kage bunshin in the forest with the others that there was a possible danger to their meeting.

And then Naruto received new knowledge from the meeting in the forest.

"_Wow..." Ino said, fiddling with her hair, which was currently braided into a pigtail. "Our first meeting in a long time..."_

"_Not that long," Shikamaru said. "But I have news."_

"_Finally," Kiba said, with a nervous grin on his face. "So what d'you got for us?"_

"_First, the information that I am going to give you is going to be limited for reasons that I am also not allowed to share. I want you to understand that we will now be working in two separate teams. On one team will be Ino, Sai, and Kiba. The second team will consist of only Neji and Naruto."_

"_Wait," Sakura said. "What about me?"_

"_You will be the intermediary. You move between groups, since you are the best-versed in the healing arts. I split the team into two groups that are relatively self-supporting at least a little, so there is less stress on you. Ino has enough talent when it comes to healing to help support Sai and Kiba at least a little bit—enough to heal hindering wounds, though severe wounds are far beyond her reach. Neji isn't the type to easily become seriously injured, and Naruto heals quickly on his own."_

_She nodded. "And you? What group are you in?"_

"_I am no longer one of you."_

"What?"

_Everyone stared at him as if he were crazy. Even Sai looked mildly astonished. Well, almost._

"_What the heck do you mean by that, Shikamaru?" Ino demanded. _

"_As in I cannot be trusted. I cannot give information, and I cannot receive information. I am from now on a stray shinobi, staying on the sidelines. I may help with assignments that Dumbledore will give us from now on, and I may be with you, but I do _not_ want any of you letting me receive any vital information."_

"_But... why?" Sakura asked. _

"_Because," he said simply, "my status as Dumbledore's personal help puts me in a position where he may constantly... draw information from me, I suppose. I can't give answers if I don't know them. You may give me false data or useless information, but I don't want you telling me anything of extreme importance unless it is particularly...well,_important_."_

"_My head is spinning," Kiba muttered. "I don't like any of this."_

"_How do we know what to and what not to tell you?" Naruto asked. _

"_Use your common sense," Shikamaru said. "If it's going to _kill_ me, I'd like a warning, at least. Preferably _before_ I'm put into danger. That's why I split you into two groups. You both take information separately. Ino and Neji are group leaders. Both are intelligent and skilled at information collecting. Sakura does not qualify because of her position as medic-nin—sorry, by the way."_

"_No problem."_

"_And Ino is not as intelligent as Neji, no offense, but she, at least, does understand the way I think and can imitate my decisions under certain situations," he said. "Tonight, Ino, you will move my memory to the back of my head. It may be a weak defense against whatever it is that Dumbledore has, but it still might help anyway. _

"_Which brings us to the next item of business. I didn't go into detail before, but Dumbledore has some sort of technique that allows him to look into our minds through eye contact. Sakura is in charge of finding out information like this, alright? It's up to her to help locate whatever it is that he uses, though you will all help if she needs it, alright? The sooner she can find out how to counteract this, the sooner I can get back to you guys. There are also two potions that I want you to research on. The first would be whichever potion Dumbledore used to trap Ino in Malfoy's body—"_

"_How are we supposed to do _that_?" Sai asked. _

_Naruto nodded. "As much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree with Sai. In case you haven't noticed, none of us are well-versed in the art of making bubbling shit."_

"_Potions, you mean. This isn't very high up on your list of priorities, but I do want to know how to make antidotes for ourselves, without relying on Dumbledore. After all, he's the one most likely to use that potion on us, so if we rely on him for the 'cure', then we'll probably actually have to do whatever he says for it. I don't want to risk any more vulnerabilities."_

"_Understandable," Sakura said. "We'll look into it."_

"_And also look into the Wolfsbane potion," Shikamaru said. "And werewolves. I want you guys to know _everything_ about them."_

"_Finally," Kiba said. "So why've you been hiding that from me?"_

"_Well, I might as well get it out in the open now," the leader said. "Statistics say that the chances of a werewolf producing surviving offspring are rather slim."_

_Kiba stared. "What?"_

"_Werewolves have a hard time producing children, and most of them don't make it into adulthood."_

"_What?"_

_No one said anything, knowing just how hard it would be for any shinobi to be unable to bear offsprings or heirs. Especially an Inuzuka._

"_I am... was... I could've been the clan leader!" he said suddenly, his eyes wide. "We're on the verge of an official bloodline limit, and my family had the thickest Inuzuka blood! I'm the only son out of my sister and mother, and I was the best nominee by far for being the head of the clan! I could've been alpha! This is... this is the generation specifically meant to have the largest amount of kids! The more kids in the entire family, the better chances we have of not only being the largest clan, but being a clan with a _bloodline_. I can't be clan leader if I can't have kids...!"_

"_Well," Shikamaru said, "it's not that you can't have them at all... But the chances of you having kids are just a bit... lowered."_

"_Great. Now, not only will it be hard to have kids, but I still have to be careful in this world, eh?" he said, rather dejectedly. _

_The genius paused, unsure of whether to add more to the bad news, telling him that the chances of his children being _healthy_ were slim as well... The worse was that the only thing he could even think of saying was, 'The odds of you becoming clan leader are actually as likely to happen as it's likely we'll ever make it home. Mainly because if we can't get home, you can't be clan leader anyway.'_

_But he had a feeling that that particular comment wouldn't help make_anyone_ feel better._

"_I want the majority of you finding information about werewolves and Wolfsbane potion. Sai, you make a timeline of all major events in both our history, the history of 'Muggles', and the history of wizards and magic."_

"_Why?"_

_Shikamaru shrugged. "I don't have any ideas left. I'm trying to find any connection between this place and home."_

"_And only on person working on getting home?" Kiba asked dully._

"_Do you want to cure lycanthropy here and go home later or do you want to go home contagious, infect everyone within reach around the full moon, and be unable to cure yourself at all because all information regarding werewolves are in a different world?"_

"_Okay, okay, I get it..." the Inuzuka said. "Stay here, get cured. But if we find a way back before...?"_

"_Then we'll go back, regardless of your condition," Shikamaru confirmed, knowing how Kiba—like anyone else—would hate to be a dead weight to the team. _

"_After all," Naruto said, "we could always set you loose in enemy territory on the nights of the full moon. Hey, maybe you'll even take out the entire Sound for us..."_

_They all laughed weakly at the joke._

"_Well," Shikamaru said to Sai. "Anyway, if you have any free time, I would like for you to speak to Zabuza and Haku while you can. I'm curious as to how and when they came here. According to Sakura and Naruto, they died only about five years ago. But according to the two ghosts, they've been here since some big war several decades back. And according to all ghosts, faculty, and students, Zabuza is the 'Bloody Baron', he doesn't talk, and Haku doesn't exist. Though that's understandable, since Zabuza doesn't talk very much and Haku claims to be unable to be seen by students, though his voice is sometimes heard. I'm not sure whether Dumbledore is aware of Haku's presence, though."_

"_Alright," Sai said idly. "Anything else?"_

"_Try to find a Japanese copy of Hogwarts, A History. Even _I'm_getting a headache just reading it, so when you guys get it, you'll have to figure it out on your own. Also try to find information as to how to strengthen Hogwarts' wards and defenses. Sakura, I want you to study the physiology of wizards, Muggles, and other magical beings. Try to figure out our own anatomy. It would help if you assisted her, too, Neji. And Sakura, I also want you to figure out possible theories of magic."_

"_But I thought that you said that wizards in this world are the equivalent to shinobi in the other world," Sakura said. _

"_I've said many things, and I've been wrong about a few before," he said. "Anyway, equivalent doesn't necessarily mean that wizards and shinobi are the same thing. I was comparing them analogously. But... if an ordinary civilian in our world is trained properly, they may become as good as any shinobi. Of course, you'd have to train much harder than a normal shinobi to become equal to a genin, since genetics plays a large role in physical and spiritual capability, while those born from a line of shinobi can become much stronger much more easily. _

"_A wizard, on the other hand, must be born a wizard. No matter how much you train, you cannot be a wizard. Maybe you can make potions, maybe you can chart stars, or maybe you could shuffle a deck of tarot cards, but you still would not have the ability to use magic. Thinking back to my theory now, I realize that I missed that. The gap between wizard and Muggle is much larger than the gap between shinobi and civilian."_

"_So we're weaker than wizards?" Kiba asked. _

"_In some ways, I have to admit that we are. In others, we might not. I think that civilians and Muggles are in the middle. Wizards go in one direction, shinobi in the other. Magnitude-wise, the wizards have advanced further. But since we may technically be two different species, it's impossible to see who is stronger. There were several occasions in which we were overcome by wizards—"_

"_But—" Naruto was about to say. _

"_I know what you're going to say," Shikamaru said. "And yes, there were several occasions wizards were overcome by _us_. It's hard to determine who's stronger when there are so many different levels. It's like comparing taijutsu and ninjutsu or brain versus brawn. Would Sai's ninjutsu beat Naruto's kage bunshin and rasengan? Would my shadow techniques and intelligence strategy-wise alone be enough to overcome Sakura's superior strength in combination for her raw intelligence and abilities to calculate things like distance, momentum, etcetera...? _

"_Such things can't be judged. It's impossible to tell who is stronger as a nation—the wizards or the shinobi? Out of pride, I'd like to say that we'd come out on top."_

"_I'd say the biggest thing we have going for us is our lack of compassion," Sai said. He glanced at the others. "Though I speak for myself. You guys are too nice."_

"_I'd say it's the Muggles with their nukes," Ino said jokingly with a grin. She turned to Shikamaru. "We get the point."_

"_Good," her boyfriend said. "I also want to know a bit more about the Akatsuki. The only ones that we know were sent here for sure are Deidara and the... one with the weird orange mask. Tobi, I think. I'm pretty sure they're not the only ones here, but I doubt any of us were conscious enough to remember who else was exactly here. And even if we were, it's been two years. Memories fade."_

"_When you say information about the Akatsuki, you mean their attacks?" Naruto asked. "Easy. Deidara makes clay from his hands, and the clay goes boom. Tobi's a weirdo."_

"_Not good enough. I want a bit more in-depth information about their techniques, as well as why the heck they attacked us. We're enemies, but I would rather focus on getting home, rather than hunting down an enemy and killing them. It'd be much easier to just go back home and leave the enemy in another world than to go through all the trouble and kill them."_

"_Maybe they just think differently," Naruto said. "Or maybe they're just after the more obvious target: the Kyuubi."_

"_They probably do still want it," Shikamaru admitted. "But why attack at this specific time? In any case, they may have actually been after Malfoy."_

"Malfoy_?" everyone repeated._

"_Our first encounter with the Akatsuki in this world took place while we were traveling with Malfoy. It's possible that they were after him and simply met us on the way."_

"_Why him?" Neji asked. _

"_That's what I want to know," Shikamaru said. "I want to make sure we get all possible suspects and motives. Make a list of people aware of us who dislike us enough to send people after us, as well as for Malfoy. Add that to the list of all possible Akatsuki members in this world. It may be just that the Akatsuki have it out for us, as we suspect. It's the likeliest option. But the Akatsuki may be working under someone, whether it's for money, for amusement, or under blackmail."_

"_What could someone possibly have to blackmail the most dangerous criminals in our worlds?" Sai asked._

"_Suspects now, motives later," Shikamaru said. "A list of everyone who doesn't like us or Malfoy. That's all you'll need for now. As for Malfoy... what are we going to do with him?"_

"_I thought we were going to keep him?" Ino said. "You said we could."_

"_Sorry, Ino, but he's _not _a pet for you to keep," he said dryly. "He knows about us. We can keep him or kill him. Dumbledore knows that we have Malfoy here too, so I don't think he'd like us killing someone just because we felt like it. As manipulative as he is, he's much too kind. But if we keep him... well, to put it simply, he's completely useless. He won't do chores—not that we need it, with the castle taking care of our every whim."_

"_If you're trying to figure out how we could use him..." Ino said slowly, "...well, he's a pureblood wizard. He says he probably doesn't have too much access to the family fortune, so now he probably wouldn't make much of a good financial backer. But he knows about how life in the wizarding world is..."_

"_Big deal. Sakura and I have access to Hogwarts' library, bookshelves full of different heritages, including different Muggle ethnicities and wizard ethnicities," Shikamaru said. _

"_Well... he's the reason that we know the Akatsuki are here for sure," Ino tried. _

"_And he may also be the reason that they know _we_ are here as well..."_

"_Point taken."_

"_Keeping him here is like having a big talking pet. We don't keep pets. At least Akamaru is useful," Shikamaru said. _

"_Why are you so loyal to him anyway?" Sakura asked her best friend._

_Ino shrugged. "He's a kid... just a stupid little kid," she answered._

"_He's pretty old for a kid," Naruto said, somewhat bitterly. _

"_No," Ino said, shaking her head almost ruefully. "We're just young for adults. Here, the legal adult age is usually around seventeen or eighteen in most advanced countries. It was unthinkable for us, but... we're the one's who're unnatural, both here and at home. Only the shinobi continents train their newer generations as an early age such as ours. Malfoy _is _like a kid. Just a big one, compared to what we were used to. I spent a seriously long time in his head, so I know how he thinks and stuff. Maybe I can't help feeling just a little... sympathetic towards him."_

_Shikamaru scratched the back of his head with a frown on his face. "Well, I suppose it's pretty lucky that at least one person here can put up with that 'kid'. _You_ can be the one to train him to be an adult then."_

"_Huh? What are you talking about?" Ino asked him. _

"_According to him, he has exceptional skill in magic in general. I doubt he's particularly powerful in comparison to others his age, but having been a pureblood raised in a completely magical environment gives him a hell lot more experience with magic than us. From what it seems, we're incompatible with their general techniques. So we'll keep him, so long as he can help us with magical information. He may know more about curses and lycanthropy and such things than we ever will. Plus, you say that his mental barrier is stronger than most people. Nowhere near as strong as yours, but he still has potential, right? He's trained in magic. You let him do whatever he wants to hone his... magical skills. You teach him basic taijutsu."_

"_Konoha forbids such actions," Sai said, with a raised eyebrow._

"_We're not in Konoha anymore," Naruto said. "What they don't know can't hurt them."_

"_Yeah," Shikamaru said. "Plus... I want to see how far an average wizard can make it by a shinobi's standards. Two new teams. Forget the Ino-Sai-Kiba, Neji-Naruto teams. There will be Ino, Kiba, and _Malfoy_ in the first team. Neji, Naruto, and Sai will be the second team. Both teams are mobilized in the event that you are pulled deeper into the war. Ino's team is in charge of information collecting, but I want you to be more focused on the defending Hogwarts from enemies and ourselves from everyone when it comes to battle. Neji, I want your team to focus on attacking anything posing a danger to ourselves and Hogwarts. Sai and Sakura are in their usual support positions. Naruto, you might be on Neji's team, but considering your compatibility in all areas, you can also be an assist for the other teams if in need of help._

"_Ino, since _you_ want to keep Malfoy so badly, you can keep him. But I'd prefer it if you changed his appearance so that he is harder to recognize in a crowd. How you change his appearance is up to you. Perhaps, if you train him well enough, he might even be able to use henge within the year."_

"_But most of us were able to it in a month's time," Ino said thoughtfully, remembering how she had easily learned the transformation technique. Mastery? Doubtful. No one in history had ever managed to truly learn the secret of the transformation technique, and she doubted anyone every will. "Do you honestly think it might take over a year to teach him to use the Henge?"_

"_Well_I'm_ not getting my hopes up," he replied skeptically. "But... you should train him to defend himself, too. With and without magic. Build up his reflexes. Physically, he's pathetic. In the meantime, you will _all_ spar. One match a day, if possible, though don't risk it too much. We don't want to get caught causing too much damage to the forest, or to hurt _ourselves _to badly either. No more than three matches in one day. At least once per week. If you don't feel like fighting each other, then just train. None of us have had a decent workout in two years. I don't want any of us unprepared for any possible future battles. _

"_I want new weapons here, but Dumbledore doesn't allow them. You'll have to resort to smuggling them into the forest to train. Kiba, you continue making new rooms and hideouts inside of Hogwarts, but I want you to always do it with Neji, Naruto, and Sakura within range, so it doesn't collapse on you. Not only could you die, but I don't think Dumbledore might like us screwing up an age-old castle. Also, maybe you could install traps. Not necessarily trap doors or anything like that, but something just in case the wards ever go down and we find ourselves in a vulnerable situation against an enemy. And make sure, in the event that some enemy has us cornered, we have an escape route. _

"_And I want you all to try practicing that Kwikspell pamphlet. Malfoy is probably capable of learning extremely basic ninjutsu, but I want to see if we can do anything, at least."_

"_Why? Magic isn't _that_ great," Kiba said. _

"_According to the daily records that injured students sign whenever they enter and exit the infirmary, Madam Pomfrey, the only nurse at Hogwarts, takes care of dozens of students a day. The most tiring thing is not healing the students, but filing the paperwork, recording each injury. The second is researching maladies and such just in case a student experiences an injury unlike any other that she had ever encountered. All she does is heal, do paperwork, and study. Sakura, do you think that it's possible for you to heal a stub of an arm? In case, perhaps, one of us lost it in a severe accident?"_

"_It would be hard, but yeah, I could," she said. _

"_With or without the power of the Kyuubi?"_

"_I could manage it without the Kyuubi, but it would be a little bit harder," she answered. _

"_Well, when a student here loses body parts and such, Madam Pomfrey doesn't just _heal_ the wound. She may often go as far as recovering an entire limb itself. So what do you think is more advanced, the wizarding Healers or the medic-nin of Konoha? Either the spells that wizards use require hardly any energy at all, or wizards have a nearly unlimited amount of energy stored within them. That's what I want to figure out."_

"_...Shikamaru," Naruto said, frowning. "The original me was in Mr. Hagrid's hut when three Hogwarts students came by. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ronald Weasley. They were asking questions."_

"_I guess it's okay for them," Shikamaru said, after a moment's thought. "I mentioned a more specific part of our job. The first is to protect Hogwarts. The second is not an official job. Dumbledore wants us to protect Harry Potter in particular. There may also be frequent trips for us."_

"_Trips?"_

"_Think of it as a treasure hunt. Dumbledore hinted at having us find and destroy certain artifacts."_

"_Well, it doesn't sound that bad," Kiba said._

"_True. He'll probably also want to come with us. And for us to bring Harry Potter as well."_

"_What? Why?" they demanded. _

"_There's something important about Potter that the old man hasn't told me," he said simply. "This is all I'm going to discuss. From here on out, we'll be moving in three separate groups, alright? There's Neji's team, Ino's team, and then myself. Ino?"_

"_Yeah?" the blond said. _

"_Make sure you don't let Malfoy get into trouble. I'd hate for him to drag us into things even further."_

"_You make it sound as if you're going to die or something," she said. _

_Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "I have no intention of dying young _or_ stressed," he said. "On the other hand, after we leave this forest, you will gradually disassociate yourselves with me. You and I will be close acquaintances but not friends. I will be your leader, and you will only begrudgingly follow orders given. And argue with me a lot. Remember all of this for me, because I won't."_

"_Huh?"_

"_Ino, I want you to move this memory to the back of my mind," he said to her. _

"_Why?" she demanded. _

"_Dumbledore has a technique that allows him to look through minds. This may only be a weak defense, but it is the only one I have. Until you figure out what magical technique he uses and how to counter it, I can't let him look into my mind. The only thing I know about this technique is that it requires eye contact, and I can't keep away from his eyes forever. So I want you to erase this meeting, as well as the moment I requested this meeting, from my mind."_

"_But then..." Ino said slowly, "...you won't know why we're avoiding you."_

"_And if lucky, I won't think that you guys just despise me for the decisions I may make when I join Dumbledore," he said. "I'll probably despise every moment of my alienation, but... it might be worth the trouble."_

"_Are you sure?" Sai asked, having a much easier time voicing everyone's thoughts. "It would be '_troublesome_' for all of us if the smartest person in the group isn't here to make our decisions."_

"_Which is why Neji and Ino are in charge. You, I don't know about, and you, Sakura, are much too important and self-sacrificing to make a good leader. Neji is impersonal by himself, and he's good enough to make reasonable decisions. Ino has worked by my side long enough to think like I think, at certain moments, I think. You and Sakura can work together, if it helps."_

_They all stared at him with uncertainty._

"_Don't look at me like that," he said, looking annoyed. "I'm sure about this, and I've been thinking this over for some time now. I wouldn't have gone through all the trouble highlighting _every single priority_ we have if I _wasn't_sure about, now move my memory before I back out of this. Besides, we all know it's probably not going to be permanent. Whether I recover my memory on my own or whether we become free of Dumbledore and maybe even get home, I'm not going to be on my own for good. Oh, and I know you guys are itching for some action, but if you want any sparring, you're going to have to get off your lazy butts and pull up a training schedule yourself, because I'm not going to do it for you. Then you can't complain about getting out of shape. Alright? Ino?"_

_Ino looked at the ground as she held up her arms for the memory modifications._

"_Shikamaru," she said warningly, "if you end up doing something incredibly stupid in the future because you couldn't remember something in this conversation, you will meet a very painful end."_

-

**My Thinking Corner**

I watched an episode of an anime where there was some sort of shadow thing that crawled in your ear and pretty much ate your memories. There wasn't any way to stop the bug completely, but to avoid forgetting all of your basic and most important functions (like how to breath, walk, or eat) except to make new memories. One of the first incidents was the mother eating her favorite food and asking, 'This is delicious! What is it?'

It got me wondering: if a person gets amnesia, do they still enjoy the same things they did before they forgot? Hypothetical question. Obviously, I didn't get amnesia. ...Though the fact that I've forgotten a lot of somewhat important things lately does have me slightly worried.

Anyway, I'm _really_ sorry about the huge delay between chapters. I'm actually currently in a bit of spot of trouble right now... let's just say I bit off way more than I can chew and am now in deep shit... So, I'm very sorry about the several month delay. x.x

The 'Kiba gets toasted by the electric fence' was a serious moment that I meant to be funnier than it really was. Obviously, I'm alone in my morbid amusement. I am sad. (pouts)

Oh, and after so many complaints, I do realize I probably owe you an explanation as to why the others didn't find Harry under the Invisibility Cloak in the last chapter. Sadly, I can't give the whole explanation, though the incredible luck that Harry and Dumbledore have been thriving in will be explained later on. Much later. Hopefully, I'll remember though.

What I told vanchagreen: Honestly, do you think you'd hear the rustling of grass under one's foot while you're in the middle of a huge dilemma? Plus, Shikamaru, whom Harry actually ended up moving closely to, noticed slightly, which was one of the reasons why he pulled out the map. It wasn't a conscious action, which he simply concluded was paranoia towards Dumbledore's location, but I meant it for him to, by instinct, realize that someone was behind him. When he finds Harry's name on the map (and so closely behind him), he turns around and finds no one there. In an open field, it's difficult to pinpoint the exact locations and identities of the sounds and the source of them. Shikamaru, being 'Logic', figures that if Harry Potter, a student whom he had heard about on several occasions, is standing behind him, he should be seen. Since he is nowhere to be seen anywhere but on the map, he decides to test this out himself, throwing a kunai at the location where Harry stands on the map, where it flies straight through the air into a tree, completely unobstructed by any sort of invisible object (because Shikamaru has already read that Invisibility cloaks are invisible, but not incorporeal). Therefore, he figures that either the map is malfunctioning or Harry has seen it. However, after thinking about it a moment after, he remembers that (for reasons I cannot tell you) attacking Harry Potter is the absolute last thing he wants to do. Therefore Kiba, who was previously upwind and is now unconscious, would not be able to detect him, and neither would Sakura or Sai, because they do not specialize in detection or tracking like Kiba and Neji. Plus, there's one more, better, factor that I cannot explain as of now...

Whoo! Finished at 4:09 in the morning! ...I started at six! ...course, left and had a turkey dinner, but.. yeah. Got back to this a little after ten...

**Review Responses:**

Liz: Depending on how much energy I have left by the time I'm finished with all of this, you might be seeing them in a sequel. :D And I feel bad for the characters sometimes too. Seriously, the shit I put them through... I'm almost tempted to give them something in return. Almost. Unfortunately, if I give into my sympathy, then they'll never get to go home! ...It's complicated. Yeah. And thanks for the support and stuff about the flamer. I can't stand people with no manners. -.- And yes. Sai is awesome.

dark672: Thanks!

silent reader: Well... not _exactly_ on the mark... Someone's going to give out eventually, but not any time soon. But... there will be trouble. Yeah, Naruto follows his instincts. Neji's eye problem, which (if I ever get to it) will be explained later, but he won't ever be caught wandering the school blind. He'd hate to be caught going blind in the middle of nowhere, so he pretty much just stays in his little Divination tower. Yes, Kiba has been infected by lycanthropy. Seriously. Yeah. I'm serious. No, they don't really get Lupin's help, though they do meet up later that somewhat affect the storyline, but... yeah. And Albus knew basically because... there's been a small 'leak'. And no, the only paintings in their rooms are Sai's. Haku and Zabuza got to this world by... well... can't tell that either. And actually, it doesn't affect their chances of going home very much at all. And no, there is no way in hell they're going to teach Malfoy any significant Japanese any time soon (other than swearing at him until he understands that they're swearing at him), considering how little most of them like him and how they'd rather not have to talk to him or have him understand what they're saying.

openwindow: Well, it was a lot easier to reverse the syllables/Japanese letters than just reversing our own individual letters. I mean, how the heck would you say something like, uh, Shikamaru? Uramakihs? ...'KIHS'? How the heck would you even say that? And Dumbledore isn't a slimy bastard. He's old and crumbly. Not _slimy_. ...ew. ((I've got the image of a giant green gooish substance shaped as an old man...)) And no worries. I like this more than my other crossover too.

star: Well, there _is_ romance, but I'd prefer not to focus too much on that. Too much on my plate without adding a huge love triangle into the entire plot. ...A bunch of small ones, maybe, but not a big one. Neji's eyes troubles are... lessening. I can't say why, though. And they'll get 'away' from Dumbledore, though not in a way you'll probably be expecting... And of course Harry and Friends are annoying. Even though I try to avoid similarities between this story and every single other, I was unable to resist the temptation of 'Harry solves (or tries to) a mystery!' idea, where he and his friends are _constantly_ prying into business that's not theirs. Of course, can you really blame them? They've done it every year and it has, to the most part, led to some very memorable, interesting school years. I'd be nosy too. Sounds fun.

nightDREAMERms: Yes. The huskies are awesome. And they're getting huge. XD When they're little, they're cute, and when they're bigger, they're cool! And the greatest thing is... when you take them to the beach,_everybody flocks to you_! Yes. Huskies are awesome. And I'm happy that you like how I added Haku and Zabuza in the story, but... I'm sorry to say that their appearance makes almost absolutely no difference, aside from an extremely like foreshadowing...

celtic-pride: Just so you know, I do _not_ have a Texas accent! ...Seriously, those accents drive me crazy. Why can't we have some sort of cooler stereotypical accent that doesn't involve the word "y'all"? Hearing that word just makes me grind my teeth and twitch... Kiba... well, you'll see what happens to him_much_ later. Sorry. Maybe around 20... And I didn't know there were spoilers! My sister sent me a page with celebrity gossip about some funny review on the bottom of the page, and I was reading the comments and saw the spoilers and was like, 'naaaah, that ain't real...' ...turns out, they are! (sob) I still bought the book though...! The ending... I liked it. Kind of final. Told what happened in the end. But... I'd really like it if the series ended there. Or, if it didn't, then it would start off with completely different characters. Maybe with someone who's a witch/wizard completely unrelated to Harry Potter and Company. Better yet, how about some stories with Merlin or Dumbledore or the Founders? ...Founders! That'd be awesome... Actually, I've got a few parts of a new crossover... It's present day, but you do still get to meet some of the founders (if not all four). They're not quite ghosts... Something much bigger and better, actually. Salazar is actually a 'good guy', and Rowena and Helga are hot gorgeous women... Can you guess what it is:) ...I'm getting off-topic though. I liked the 7th book, but I was still disappointed that most of the things I already suspected actually came true. I suppose I can blame fanfiction though. Ruined everything for me. And hell yeah they shed a lot... They jump out of their pen and a bunch of tiny hairs fly up in the air... XD

CrossoverJunkie: Oh god... hearing how happy you were that I had updated makes me feel so guilty that it took me so long to do so... I'm sorry. x.x I can't really do ask you ask, concerning the gap between my last chapters. I'm doing my best to ration what chapters I have left, because I may have just quit writing, and not of my own volition, just so you know. Considering the fact that I may have just ruined my future, I decided I needed to focus more on schoolwork. My grades this semester will greatly effect the rate that I write, or if I even continue to write at all. Therefore, I must spend a lot of my time studying right now so that I may continue to write in the future. I already gave up piano (10+ years, literally), drawing, reading, and video games, but I'm clinging onto writing as long as I can!  
Guh, I probably didn't need to tell you any of that, but I need to let some of my stress out anyway. Anyway, it's nice to know that there's a 'Yarochisai Standard'. Very flattering. And, if you hadn't noticed, coming to this world, Shikamaru has become a nicotine addict with issues that seriously compromise the team. It's not that he's horrible and stuff, but he's been making a few big mistakes recently. Plus, they've been feeling a feeling of irritation as of late when it comes to Shikamaru, and they have not yet found the source of it either. The thing is, the shinobi are picking at each other, on edge and unable to calm down, considering how they feel as if they are living in the enemy territory (Hogwarts) with one of their their most despised enemies (Malfoy, for lying about Dumbledore and the mission he asked of them) living alongside them. Their irritation with Shikamaru goes deeper than just him being a bit of a jerk every once in a while when under stress. They are well aware that Shikamaru is being forced to work for Dumbledore, but he refuses to work with them, to tell them the conditions of his contract, to tell them what his missions and tasks are, and to accept their help. Whether they realize the deeper reasons for their irritation or not, they feel bothered that he doesn't trust them enough to communicate with them, as if their assistance is too trivial to be accounted for. It's far from the truth, but it still feels demeaning as Shikamaru--whom they had worked alongside and lived with for years--acts as if they are not his 'equals', capable of sharing the burden.


	14. Chapter 13

**MERRY CHRISTMAS!  
And for those who just stop reading once you get to my thinking corner, skip down past that the the RRs to read the first omake, in which I will end all succeeding chapters! Basically, they're small blurbs for places that I wasn't entirely sure where to put in the actual plotline.**

Chapter 13: Spies and Conspiracies  
_More than you know..._

"...and so now I'm feeling really bad about the thing that we did because we were told to do so by our leader, which puts the leader in a difficult situation," Sakura admitted to the only ones in Hogwarts whom she felt would not betray her confidentiality.

"Let me get this straight," Zabuza said, looking annoyed by his current position as a 'counselor' for the distraught shinobi. "Leader wants you to do something. You don't want to do it because it makes said leader... feel bad. Or whatever. But it needed to be done, because it's beneficial to the entire group. So what needed to be done was done."

"Exactly," she said, nodding.

"...As complicated as your sidestepping words were, I don't see what the problem here is," he said.

"You don—I—you... how can you not see the problem?!" she said angrily, swiping at the incorporeal apparition in vain.

"What matters in the end is that you're all alive and well," Zabuza said.

"But—"

"I don't think you understand what Zabuza-sama is trying to say," a voice said, lingering in the empty hallway. Sakura sighed, not used to talking to someone she couldn't see. "You followed orders of someone you trust who trusts you in return. That's the greatest thing in the world, isn't it? All eight of you are very intelligent. You all know that losing one of you could be one of the most painful things in the world. None of you want to die, because, well, humans naturally want to live _and_ you care enough for each other that you don't want anyone to be hurt by your death. As painful as it may be, the bond you share and the trust you have for one another, is it really something you want to lose?"

"Haku, I get what you're trying to say, and I think that you're misunderstanding me as well," Sakura said. "What Zabuza says is that it's fine to follow any orders given so long as you don't get killed following those stupid orders. What you're trying to say is that you should trust a person well enough to know that he's not going to do anything to hurt any of us. What I'm trying to say is that I know it's for the benefit of the group, but something still feels wrong about it! Like, if you were alive and Zabuza asked for you to kill him, would you do it?"

"Yes," came the immediate response.

Sakura stared at him. "...Okay, so that was not quite the response I was expecting..." she mumbled.

Haku laughed, though still unseen. "Sakura, if you don't agree with what Naruto has done, then maybe you should tell him."

"Tell him what?"

"That you don't like the decision he made?" Haku asked, sounding puzzled.

"It's not Naruto that I was talking about," she said.

"...Odd," the invisible poltergeist said. "I would have thought that with his leadership skills, he'd be the leader..."

"Well he isn't," she said. "I mean, Naruto's a decent guy, but he's not the smartest. He's loads smarter than what he used to be, but when it comes to planning, one guy has us all in the dust. Naruto would make a great leader, but only because he makes decisions based on his ethics. What he feels is right and wrong."

"Ah, pity," Haku said. "Well, I suppose his dream to become Hokage is still a distant dream..."

Sakura smiled. "It will remain a distant dream until we find a way back to Konoha," she said sadly.

"I'd ask how you all stumbled out here into this world in the first place, but it seems like a touchy issue, even after all the time you must have already spent in this realm... Maybe once you become closer to finding your way home, I'll remember to ask you..." he said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Zabuza needs to return to the Slytherin dormitory."

"Wait, I want to ask you a few things..." Sakura said, as Zabuza went invisible. "Haku, why do _you_ never appear? Zabuza doesn't go invisible all the time."

"No one except for you and Zabuza knows that I exist," he said. "The best weapon is one that no one knows of."

"Oh," she said. "So you don't trust Dumbledore either."

"I don't trust...? Why wouldn't I trust him?" Haku asked, sounding puzzled. "He's a good man."

'_You've got to be kidding me._'

"Really?" she asked.

"Yes. He has saved the Wizarding world against the Dark Lord, and now he's regrouping his forces to fight a 'new' evil."

"Yeah, I heard something about that," Sakura said dismissively as she shook her head, not caring to listen to another list of his achievements. After all, even though she knew of him and his heroic deeds, it didn't mean she didn't have to like him on a personal basis. "So... how did you end up being a ghost here of all places?" she asked, throwing another question at Haku before the former missing-nin could ask a question in return.

"I don't know. It was dark for a really long time. And then Zabuza and I just woke up around the same time in this castle..." Haku said. "Armando Dippet was the current headmaster at the time. Not the brightest man—he never saw that Riddle was _too _perfect... He stayed headmaster for about thirty years and moved to Peru with his wife."

"Thirty years?" Sakura repeated. Surely they weren't here for_that_ long—

"Thirty years," Haku confirmed. "Zabuza and I have been here since 1945."

-

Neji glared at his tea. Ordinarily, he didn't mind having to sit in front of all of the Hogwarts students just to eat a meal. In fact, he actually rather enjoyed the high seat, looking down at others. He could almost pretend he was like the head of his clan, lording over his subordinates.

Of course, it would be a cold day in hell that he ever told anyone about these daydreams of his. They were all convinced he was satisfied with giving Hinata all of the power in the Hyuuga clan. Not that he still had any personal vendetta against his cousin, but he knew that she was much too kind and that it was her younger sister who was much more ambitious. As much as Hanabi had come to learn to respect her older sister, Neji doubted that Hanabi had enough respect to take the cursed seal willingly. No, Hanabi would probably fight tooth and nail for her freedom.

Metaphorically speaking, of course. That was not the Hyuuga way.

Anyway, Neji didn't mind sitting up in the front with the rest of the staff. But he did mind being used the way they were using him at the moment.

With Ino being the only person he personally knew out of the staff members of Hogwarts, he always sat with her on his left. It was a bit more comforting, not being alone. Like added insurance if he instinctively shut his Byakugan down again.

Every day, he sat next to Ino, and Krum would end up sitting next to Snape, where he would be subject to glares and scowls.

_However_, today, Krum was sitting on Ino's other side, leaving Neji sitting next to the intimidating potions master. To make matters worse, he felt as if he were 'caught in the crossfire', with Snape glaring through him to watch Krum with annoyed eyes.

Neji sighed, resisting the urge to remove his sunglasses and give Snape a 'glare' of his own, just to make himself feel better and look a bit more imposing. Of course, he rarely removed the sunglasses in the presence of anyone outside the group.

Explaining the white eyes would be rather difficult. Contacts? For a Hyuuga? Preposterous!

Telling everyone that Neji was blind, or damn near close to it, was a lot simpler. Plus, he got to carry a pretty nice cane. He felt it made him look dignifying.

Still, with the dragon hide gloves, cane, sunglasses, and hat, Neji had almost immediately been dubbed the most eccentric wizard at the table, with his odd combination of both Wizarding and Muggle styles. If Trelawney, with her ridiculously huge, eye-magnifying glasses, had still been amongst the staff, Neji might have even given her a run for her money.

Being 'blind' and wearing his Muggle sunglasses meant that he probably wouldn't know that Snape was glaring at him to get to the Defense professor, so Neji continued to eat, keeping his eyes and face forward but still keeping a watchful eye on everyone around him, tempted to do _something_ to stop that irritating glare.

"Severus Snape, is it?" he said suddenly.

"What do you want?" the professor asked, shifting his attention to the Hyuuga.

"Just making sure I had your name correct," Neji said, shrugging. "You're the potions master, am I right?"

"Yes," Snape said, with rude curtness. Which was fine, really, because it wasn't as if Neji was on his own best behavior at the moment anyway.

"But... you were the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher before," he said.

"Students talk too much, I see," the potions professor sneered, his voice clearly telling Neji, 'Whatever deductions you have made mean nothing, as it's all easily accessible information you incompetent divination professor.'

"I consider their gossip to be below me," Neji said, idly stuffing pastries into his 'to-go' box for the others if they didn't order some for themselves, being as irresponsible as they often were when it came to trivialities such as snacks and small meals. "Dumbledore is too trusting... yet not trusting enough."

"What makes you say that?" Snape said, now curious to see this man's insight.

Neji smirked. He reveals just one little bit of logic, and the man is already curious to see what else he knew. Now... should he tell him how he knew or what he had deducted to figure it out?

"You _really_ wanted the position, but Dumbledore refused it to you time and time again. Last year, you managed to cling onto the spot for two precious semesters until he finally found a new person to replace you. He fears that too much exposure to dark magic would tempt you. That is the distrusting side of him. However," he said, lowering his voice so that only the two of them could hear. "However... the insignia on your arm... your presence at Hogwarts... He trusts you well enough to place you in a position of power."

Snape's hand went immediately to his arm. "How did you—?"

"Don't worry, the mark has never seen the light of day," Neji said, with a sly smugness in his voice. "Your skin seems much too pallid to have had enough exposure to sunlight, if any at all."

He received a suspicious glare, much to his carefully hidden glee.

"I'm not going to question your judgment, nor am I going to try and find out how you knew about my mark," Snape hissed under his breath. "But what I am curious to know is that, after you spent all your life in the Muggle world and two months in the Wizarding world, you already know of the Dark Mark?"

Neji knew about the Dark Mark from a Wizarding newspaper, actually, but that wasn't the first time he had ever seen it.

"A former client of ours had it as well," he said vaguely, watching Snape for a reaction. Neji made several mental notes of all the seemingly significant details to come up with an accurate reading of his thoughts and feelings, taking notice of the slightly straightened posture, the narrowing eyes, the subtly intensified scowl, the slightest bit of concern, the subtle movement of his fingers, the one-third of an inch distance that he had moved forward in his seat, and the slightly increased rhythm of his heartbeat.

Neji lacked Kiba's keen auditory and olfactory sense, but his white eyes, even when inactivated, were sharp enough to see the ever-so-slight pulsing of the veins closest to the skin as they increased in speed by a tenth. His eyes weren't as accurate without using the Byakugan to read the actions of the involuntary bodily reactions, but they were sufficient enough to watch a close target like a hawk and a particularly large, dark, and nasty looking mouse.

"You knew of our previous profession, don't you?" Neji continued, watching Snape with practiced casualness in his voice. "From what it seems, Dumbledore spoke to you of our origins and past occupations."

'_He suspects that we killed or at least hurt Malfoy..._' the Hyuuga thought to himself with a smile. '_I suppose Dumbledore has neglected to tell his little underling about our guest..._'

"What," Snape said, quickly changing the subject, "deal did you make with Dumbledore?"

Neji frowned, actually surprised by the sudden change in topics. "I don't know. You tell me," he said.

Snape's right eyebrow shifted slightly lower, almost unseen.

Neji remembered that this was the man was present at the negotiations, but he obviously didn't know what happened exactly. That meant Shikamaru and Dumbledore had probably spoken so that he didn't hear or understand.

Dumbledore knew Japanese then.

Neji made a mental note to tell everyone not to speak in Japanese in the old man's presence if they wanted to avoid letting Dumbledore know their plans.

Neji finally turned face-to-face with Snape, leaning his head forward slightly at an angle to meet the professor's eyes. The solid coal black eyes met the pearly pale eyes over the dark sunglasses. They both smirked almost imperceptibly.

They both wanted to know what their leaders were doing, and they now both knew that the other had some sort of technique to understand at least vaguely what was going through the other's mind (1).

"Good lord," Ino muttered to Viktor, rolling her eyes as the two continued using Neji as the human shield against Snape. "They're actually getting along."

-

"Wait, let me get this straight," Lavender said with obvious disbelief. "_You_ want _me_ to hit on a teacher?"

"Who better?" Ginny muttered under her breath. Luckily, this went unheard with Hermione's reasoning.

"Lavender, please, this is important," she said. Lavender glared at the person who caused the end of her and Ron's heated relationship. Undaunted by this glare, Hermione continued. "You're pretty, you have cleavage, you're intelligent, and you have a class with him."

"Oh, come on," the girl said sarcastically. "What class do I have that you don—_oh_."

Hermione recognized the change in this girl's attitude. She would have been ecstatic about the fact the girl seemed to suddenly agree with the plan, but she was a bit more confused as to why, instead of being gleeful at the chance to flirt with a handsome teacher, Lavender had a more sinister look to her face.

"You suspect Professor _Hyuuga_ of being some You-Know-Who supporter?" Lavender asked slyly.

"Well, no. I don't think he's a supporter of Voldemort," Hermione said, ignoring Lavender's yelp at the name. "But I'm not sure about how trustworthy he is to Dumbledore..."

"Wait, not with You-Know-Who _or_ Professor Dumbledore?" she asked. "What is he then?"

"We're not sure," Ginny said. "But we're relatively sure that he and his friends aren't the best people to trust—"

"Friends? Plural?" she said. "You've met his friends? How long have you known this guy?"

"Only a little longer than you have," Hermione said. "Didn't you know? He's friends with the two new librarians too."

"Ooh," Lavender said, her eyes melting into her usual dreamy look. "He's _their_ friend. I like the guy. Shikamaru. He's got ear piercings, you know that? _And_ he smokes. And even though he acts cool, he's smart too! He's always reading!"

"You like that kind of quality in a guy?" Ginny said incredulously, assuming that, after she had gone out with Ron, Lavender preferred something along the lines of 'thick-headed Quidditch players'.

"Well, I don't want him being a complete bonehead," Lavender said, sounding a bit offended.

"Considering the fact that you went out with my brother, of all people, I couldn't tell," Ginny said.

It took Lavender a moment to realize that it was a joke and to laugh along with the other two girls.

"So," Lavender said. "If I'm helping you guys, I want to be in on _everything_! What do you know about Professor Hyuuga?"

"Well, I think he's a Muggle, or at least Muggleborn. ...Well, maybe half-blood, I'm not sure but—"

"Wait, that can't be right," Lavender said immediately.

"What do you mean by that?" Hermione said. Her first impulse was to be annoyed at being cut off so early in the conversation, but her second impulse was to indulge her curiosity and refrain from glaring at her boyfriend's ex to find out what she knew about Neji Hyuuga.

"I think he mentioned something in his class about how he descended from some great and noble family or something like that," she said. "Which means he's probably pureblood."

"But he was dressed in Muggle clothing," Ginny said, strongly reminded of the Malfoy's by Hyuuga's apparent self-description of himself and his family. "Before they arrived at the wedding, they were wearing Muggle clothing."

"Drab ones, at that," Hermione commented. "I don't think that a 'great and noble pure-blooded family' would be so poor as to be unable to afford wizard attire for him..."

"Well... maybe it's a quirk!" Lavender suggested. "You know... dress as a poor Muggle... being funny about it? 'Cause, you know, it's not as if he's completely wearing wizard style right now. He's got _robes_, sure, but he's also got a bunch of hats, a bandanna, sunglasses, and a cane that's decidedly not magical. Besides, Ron's brother—Bill, right? ...the really cute one with the hair and the piercings?—he dresses the same way too!"

"It's possible that he's not as poor as he appears..." Hermione mused. "Plus, I heard that Sai and Naruto practically bought half the merchandise from Fred and George's store."

"Sai? Naruto?" the girl repeated.

"The others," Ginny said, as if it were obvious.

"How many of he and his friends are here?" Lavender asked in surprise.

"Um... well, we know that there are the two and the library... Hyuuga and Yamanaka in the Divination Tower... a guy named Yamada Taro, but everyone calls him Sai... there's a guy with a dog named Kiba and a blond guy with whisker tattoos named Naruto," Hermione listed. "I think there are seven."

"How do I not see them?" she said. "Nobody's ever said anything about new teachers or staff or anything."

"Well, we think that the other three are patrolling the school," Ginny said.

"Hogwarts' wards have done fine for the past few centuries," Lavender said. "Are they really necessary?"

"Possibly not, since I think they're only here because the other four are," Hermione said slowly, "but completely pointless? I don't think so. I... okay, I'm going to tell you something, and not a single word leaves this room, okay?" she asked Lavender, who nodded excitedly. "You don't remember this, but towards the end of the school year, Hogwarts was invaded."

"_What_? How?"

"They came in through the Room of Requirement, through magical transportation," Hermione said. "I think there were about five of them."

"How come I don't remember?"

"We _think_ that there was something in our breakfast that Dumbledore had the house-elves put in there," Ginny said. "I ate it, and I don't remember. Ron, Harry, and Hermione missed breakfast, and they still do."

"But then—there's no proof!" Lavender said. "How do you know—?"

"They're not working here willingly, did you know that?" Hermione asked. "We think that Dumbledore's _making_ them stay here and work. Whatever he has on them, I hope it's secure. I'd hate to know what would happen if he lost control of them..."

"Are you sure?" she whispered, as if someone could possibly hear them in the empty room. "I mean, how can you tell for sure?"

"The day it happened, they stole something of Harry's," Hermione said.

"Was it important?"

"It's a potential danger to the school, but that wasn't their original purpose. They grabbed it on a whim, and I don't think that they even realized how important it was and could be. We think that their true purpose was to kill Dumbledore."

Lavender gasped dramatically. "Was he alright?"

"Oh course," Ginny said. "He's alive, isn't he?"

"But... don't forget," Lavender said. "If Dumbledore was just a_little_ hurt by them, that would mean these people were really powerful. Plus, Dumbledore really could have been hurt and not shown it. He's old and he's been weakened after all."

"What are you talking about?" the Weasley asked.

"Well, have you forgotten about his hand?" she asked. "It's still _dead_, just so you know."

Ginny and Hermione's eyes widened. They had forgotten about that strange injury, yet it had been Lavender, one of the most seemingly dimwitted girls in Gryffindor, who had spotted and remembered it. She was much sharper than she appeared, Ginny and Hermione realized.

"Well..." Hermione said. "He's fine, even with his injury and age, so I suppose... I suppose they're not great..."

"Yeah," Ginny said, with more confidence. "Besides, they're only in their, what, early twenties? How dangerous could they be?"

"So are you going to help us out?" Hermione asked Lavender.

Lavender smiled at them both. "Of course."

"And... just out of curiosity... you were going to help us before you found all this out," she said. "Why did you suddenly want to help us dig around to find out more about Hyuuga?"

Lavender sniffed angrily. "Professor Hyuuga... he totally contradicts everything about the art of divination!"

Hermione and Ginny resisted the urge to roll their eyes. Great. They got themselves drawn into one of Lavender's speeches...

"I mean, first of all, he called Professor Trelawney crazy! And stupid! He said that she was stupid to leave her tower so she could become a target for You-Know-Who's followers and he was so _mean_ about it! What kind of person just tells a class that the previous teacher dies and shows that _little _respect? And then he said that she was also stupid enough to buy faulty incense from a shady place and was actually burning narcotic hallucinogens in her classroom, which, according to him, caused her "so-called predictions"! What's a narcotic hallucinogen? And he had the nerve to _air-quote_ the word predictions!"

The other two girls struggled to hold back their laughter and amused faces and, quite miraculously, succeeded.

"Plus," Lavender said, in her conspiracy-voice with her eyes wide with the high she must have gotten whenever spreading rumors. "He's not teaching us divination. He said that fate is for an 'aho'," she said, air-quoting the word. "What's an _aho_ (2)?"

"No idea," Hermione said. "But if the Divination professor isn't teaching divination, then what's he teaching you?"

This confused her, since earlier that day, Parvati had mentioned that the lovely Professor Hyuuga had given a possibly accurate prediction in their most recent class.

"_Psychology_," she said, rolling her eyes. "What the devil is psycho—?"

"He's teaching you _what?_" Hermione practically shrieked, her eyes nearly bulging.

Figures.

The first class based entirely on logic and common sense—her greatest strength—was the first class she had dropped in her third year.

Hermione stomped off out of the room, quite irritated. Ginny followed her, mouthing her thanks to Lavender for helping the group try to find information on the suspicious arrivals in Hogwarts.

Lavender smiled, leaning back into the pillows of her bed and staring at the cracks in the ceiling, feeling confident and altogether joyful.

She was going to get rid of the blasphemous Divination professor (and possibly his excessively beautiful assistant as well), _and_ she was quite possibly playing a huge role in helping the Chosen One and his friends in the war.

And all she had to do was flirt with a cute asshole of a teacher, to boot.

-

Kiba was quite literally moving around at snail's pace inside Hogwarts when he overheard an interesting conversation with a group of girls.

'Quite literally', as in he was moving around inside its walls, pushing himself through the tunnels he had already finished, with Shikamaru's lighter in hand so that he would be able to see whether or not he was going in the wrong direction according to the map.

He had stolen the lighter with Sakura's encouragement, actually, as it would stop their friend from smoking for at least a moment until the genius used his brain to figure out how to light a cigarette without a lighter instead of trying to figure out why everyone was pretty much ignoring him.

Ignoring the stab of guilt he felt at his thoughts, Kiba heard the girls' voices and immediately perked up. He crawled through the walls to peek inside the room through the cracks in the walls. The cracks really weren't enough to look through, but it helped him smell out the people in the room and hear what they were saying.

One girl had a strong scent, mixed with perfume and incense—the incense only slightly weaker than the one that Ino and Neji came home smelling like every night. It was probably weaker because she spent less time in the classroom than Ino and Neji as well. She also wore newly washed clothes, a so-called 'scentless' deodorant, a thick layer of makeup, and strawberry-flavored lipstick. He took a deep breath. She smelled pretty nice for a girl attempting to drown out her natural scent with artificial fakes.

The second one smelled like fresh grass in the morning, as if a lawn had just been mowed. A breezy scent, fun and kind of relaxing. Her scent was slightly harder to detect, as if the girl spent a large amount of time in the wind. The only unnatural scent on here was the faint scent of body spray, and that was it, which was pretty relaxing for his nose.

Now the third girl reminded him quite a bit of Sai. She smelled like ink and books, with the whole 'library' scent with her. Yes. This girl smelled like a walking library. Her scent was rather stronger than Sai's, actually. Sai used a lot more ink and smelled of stronger ink, but he used relatively new paper, while this girl had a more ancient feel to her scent—probably due to the parchment that professors were so fond of having their students use. It was a bit mustier than Sai's scrolls, but, despite how it sounded when put into in words, not entirely an unpleasant smell. This was almost definitely the girl who had been kind enough to lend him her paper on werewolves...

There was a multitude of other scents. He knew who had gone in and out of the room for the past day and how long. He could even catch traces of people behind the door that these girls had locked for their 'secret meeting'.

Kiba wondered vaguely if this made him a peeping Tom. Technically, he wasn't peeping. He was smelling. Smelling Tom?

_Nah_...

"Lavender," Parchment girl said. "Can we ask you something?"

"What do you want?" the Lavender girl said, sounding rather gruff.

"We need you to do a favor for us," the youngest sounding one said.

"No."

"We didn't even tell you what it was that we were going to ask you yet!" the girl said indignantly. "At least hear us out!"

"Fine," Lavender said, though Kiba could tell from her voice that the girl probably had every intention of saying 'no' the moment the other two girls f​inished their proposition. "What do you want?"

"You're probably the best person in Gryffindor whom we can trust to... well, ah... get past a man's defenses," Hermione said slowly. "There's a prof—"

"Wait," Lavender interrupted, seeming to be giving the two girls a look that asked them 'are-you-bloody-crazy?' "Let me get this straight... _You_ want _me_ to hit on a teacher?"

"Who better?" the younger one muttered under her breath, though Lavender didn't seem to hear this.

"Lavender, please, this is important," the Parchment girl said. "You're pretty, you have cleavage, you're intelligent, and you have a class with him."

"Oh, come on," the girl said sarcastically. "What class do I have that you two don—_oh_."

Kiba frowned. The flat-out refusal he had previously heard in the girl's voice had become something more along the lines of, 'ooh, this sounds_ interesting..._'.

"You suspect Professor _Hyuuga_ of being some You-Know-Who supporter?"

You-Know-Who?

Kiba didn't know who, but he did know that if Neji was the target of a girl trying to seduce the information out of him...

...Someone was going to get hurt, and it was not going to be Neji.

He'd be annoyed maybe, but not hurt. Hyuuga don't get hurt.

Members of the Hyuuga clan like Hanabi and Neji tended to be emotionless robots with difficulties expressing their thoughts.

...On second thought, maybe he could get hurt. Even for a Hyuuga, Neji was one of the most screwed up people Kiba knew. ...Of the three Hyuuga that he had ever met, that is.

"Well, no. I don't think he's a supporter of Voldemort," Parchment girl said. There was a small shriek.

Was there a bug in the room or something? Or were they just screaming at the name? V... vo... Voldywhatsits?

"But I'm not sure about how trustworthy he is to Dumbledore..." the girl continued.

"Wait, not with You-Know-Who _or_ Professor Dumbledore? What is he then?"

"We're not sure," the youngest said. "But we're relatively sure that he and his friends aren't the best people to trust—"

"Friends? Plural? You've met his friends? How long have you known this guy?"

"Only a little longer than you have. Didn't you know? He's friends with the two new librarians too."

"Ooh... He's _their_ friend. I like the guy. Shikamaru. He's got ear piercings, you know that? _And_ he smokes. And even though he acts cool, he's smart too! He's always reading!"

Kiba snorted. They must've made a mistake. Shikamaru never read unless he absolutely had to.

"You like that kind of quality in a guy?"

"Well, I don't want him being a complete bonehead."

"Considering the fact that you went out with my brother, of all people, I couldn't tell."

There was a short moment of laughter.

"So...if I'm helping you guys, I want to be in on everything! What do _you_ know about Professor Hyuuga?"

"Well, I think he's a Muggle, or at least Muggleborn. ...Well, maybe half-blood, I'm not sure but—"

"Wait, that can't be right."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I think he mentioned something in his class about how he descended from some great and noble family or something like that. Which means he's probably pureblood."

"But he was dressed in Muggle clothing. Before they arrived at the wedding, they were wearing Muggle clothing."

Muggle... that was in the book... something about non-magic people.

"Drab ones, at that. I don't think that a _great and noble_pure-blooded family would be so poor as to be unable to afford wizard attire for him..."

Ouch.

"Well... maybe it's a quirk! You know... dress as a poor Muggle... being funny about it? 'Cause, you know, it's not as if he's completely wearing wizard style right now. He's got _robes_, sure, but he's also got a bunch of hats, a bandanna, sunglasses, and a cane that's decidedly not magical."

"It's possible... Plus, I heard that Sai and Naruto practically bought half the things from Fred and George's store."

"Sai? Naruto?"

"The others."

"How many of he and his friends are here?"

"Um... well, we know that there are the two and the library... Hyuuga and Yamanaka in the Divination Tower... a guy named Yamada Taro, but everyone calls him Sai... there's a guy with a dog named Kiba and a blond guy with whisker tattoos named Naruto. I think there are seven."

Kiba winced. They already knew that much about them...? Their pride as shinobi was going down the drain... Then again, they hardly made any attempt to hide their presence, whatsoever... Did it really matter all that much whether or not these kids knew a lot about them or were they just being paranoid and overly secretive?

"How do I not see them? Nobody's ever said anything about new teachers or staff or anything."

"Well, we think that the other three are patrolling the school."

"The Hogwarts wards have done fine for the past few centuries. Are they really necessary?"

"Possibly not, since I think they're only here because the other four are, but completely pointless? I don't think so. I... okay, I'm going to tell you something, and not a single word leaves this room, okay? You don't remember this, but towards the end of the school year, Hogwarts was invaded."

"_What_? How?"

"They came in through the Room of Requirement, through magical transportation. I think there were about five of them."

"How come I don't remember?"

"I suspect that there was something in our breakfast that Dumbledore had the house-elves put in..."

What's with this old man and drugging people?

"...I ate it," the girl continued, "and I don't remember anything. Ron, Harry, and Hermione missed breakfast, and they still do."

"But then—there's no proof! How do you know—?"

"They're not working here willingly, did you know that? We think that Dumbledore's _making_ them stay here and work. Whatever he has on them, I hope it's secure. I'd hate to know what would happen if he lost control of them..."

"Are you sure?" Lavender lowered her voice to a whisper, much to Kiba's annoyance. "I mean, how can you tell for sure?"

"The day it happened, they stole something of Harry's."

'_We _what?'

"Was it important?"

"It's a potential danger to the school, but that wasn't their original purpose. They grabbed it on a whim, and I don't think that they even realized how important it was and could be. Their true purpose was to kill Dumbledore."

"Was he alright?"

"Oh course. He's alive, isn't he?"

"But... don't forget, if Dumbledore was just a _little_ hurt by them, that would mean these people were really powerful. Plus, Dumbledore really could have been hurt and not shown it. He's old and he's been weakened after all."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, have you forgotten about his hand? It's still _dead_, just so you know."

_'His hand is dead? And that idiot still couldn't kill him! I knew it! Naruto is _toonice'

"Well... He's fine, even with his injury and age, so I suppose... I suppose they're not great..."

"Yeah. Besides, they're only in their, what, twenties? How dangerous could they be?"

Oh now _that_ was a blow to their pride. Stupid little girl... And they weren't even twenty yet, either!

"So... are you going to help us out?"

"Of _course."_

"And... just out of curiosity... you were going to help us before you found out all this. Why did you suddenly want to help us dig around to find out more about Hyuuga?"

"Professor Hyuuga... he totally contradicts everything about divination! I mean, first of all, he called Professor Trelawney crazy! And stupid! He said that she was stupid to leave her tower so she could become a target for You-Know-Who's followers and he was so_mean_ about it! And then he said that she was also stupid enough to buy faulty incense from a shady place and was actually burning narcotic hallucinogens in her classroom, which caused her apparent so-called predictions! What's a narcotic hallucinogen? And he had the nerve to _air-quote_ the word predictions! Plus, he's not teaching us divination. He said that fate is for an 'aho'. What's an _aho_?"

Kiba snickered at that.

"No idea... But if the Divination professor isn't teaching divination, then what's he teaching you?"

"_Psychology._ What the devil is psycho—?"

"_He's teaching you WHAT?_"

Kiba's head banged against the thin rock walls at the sound of the girl's siren-like shriek, wincing from his ringing ears and aching head.

He wriggled through the walls towards the nearest exit he had memorized, which just so happened to be in the middle of the hallway next to a suit of armor. Carefully making sure that no one was there to witness his presence, Kiba wiggled out of the hole and stretched, tired of crawling around in enclosed spaces.

As he headed back to their quarters, Kiba pondered the new questions in his mind.

His sense of smell had increased almost dramatically since he had been bitten by the werewolf, Kiba mused to himself, bringing a hand up to trace the still slightly 'fresh' scars on his neck. As amazing as it was, it still worried him. He was definitely changing. He wondered just how dangerous it would be to keep him around without that Wolfsbane potion and, even though he knew that none of his friends would ever do such a thing, he couldn't help but wonder if he'd have to be isolated from the group.

Or, at the very worst, put down.

Kiba took a deep breath, forcing the feeling of nausea down his throat. No way. There was no way that they would diminish their numbers even further. Because if they did, the nine of them who had first arrived upon this world (including Akamaru) would end a remarkably smaller number of five, including Sakura, Naruto, Sai, and Ino. Neji and Shikamaru both counted as halves, because they often seemed to be half there—Neji with his guilt and mood swings, and Shikamaru with his unknowingly self-induced isolation.

..._Okay_, this was getting _way_ too dramatic for Kiba's tastes.

Time to focus the more pressing matters.

What the heck had their group taken that belonged to Harry, valuable enough to cause these kids to target them, insignificant enough to cause the shinobi not to give it a second thought?

How had they figured out about all seven of the—oh... Well, Ino and Neji were employed as a part of Hogwarts' staff, as were Sakura and Shikamaru. Neji had been present at the Weasley's wedding with himself and Sai. And they must have spotted Naruto in Hagrid's hut.

What would everybody's next step be? There were so many other factors to consider. Kiba would give a limb for Shikamaru (or at least someone as smart as him) to help them all figure out what to do next.

There were Dumbledore's actions, which dictated Shikamaru, who still had some remnants of control of the others.

There were their own plans, with their two teams. Ino and Neji. Which gave birth to several more possibilities.

There was the Akatsuki, who was definitely here in this world.

And then there was the V fellow, who may or may not be working with the Akatsuki.

In addition to that, their lead strategist was now on a team of his own, working between Dumbledore's will, his own, and his friends.

Kiba sighed, toying with the lighter that he had previously been using as light in his tunnels, flipping it open and shut and tracing the leaf symbol engraved in the bottom and swearing to himself in the back of his mind that he would not lose it. He had a massive headache right now, trying to think of the future. It wasn't only that it was impossibly complicated, but he simply didn't want to think about it, and he had a sneaking suspicion that the others felt the same way as well.

There were simply too many factors, and the future was too complex and impossible to map out.

-

Shikamaru sighed, fiddling with his unlit cigarette, wondering vaguely where his lighter had gone. Over the two years he had it, he had kept it in near-perfect condition. And he was sure that it wasn't completely lost. It must be somewhere still inside his rooms.

Aside from the worn-out hitai-ate band that he secretly kept hidden amongst his belongings (as did everyone else, he suspected), it was his last memory of his home back in Konoha. It was his treasure, and he hated the idea that it was gone.

It wasn't just any treasure—it was Asuma's.

His teacher was dead. Asuma-sensei was an amazing shinobi, but even he must have been no match for the team of S-class assassins. Shikmaru had known that his teacher was dead and had dealt with the fact easily two years ago. But now his prized lighter was gone, as was the peace of his mind.

Maybe it was Ino. Maybe she had pried into his mind, as he had forbidden her to do to maintain their trust for each other. And then maybe she had found out through his memories that their teacher had died. She might be angry at him because of that—that he had never told her about it.

Then again, Ino didn't have the ability to look inside his mind like that so easily, and even if she was willing to risk using that technique, he'd know. But maybe she found out about his death some other way and she was angry and doing her best to avoid him so that she could avoid the topic and thus avoid any awkward outbursts.

Which would certainly explain why she had broken up with him just moments ago with a suspiciously blank expression on her face.

Ino wasn't too good at pulling off the whole 'dead inside' look. She, like everyone else and Naruto in particular, wore her heart out on her sleeve. Sure, it was generally looked down on by shinobi, but who cared, really? It wasn't as if they were in Konoha anyway.

He was starting to give up on finding a way home.

In this world, time travel was possible. Teleportation through fireplaces were possible. As was just plain teleportation, though there would often be a huge 'crack' sound when the person teleported.

All sorts of things were possible, but, apparently, traveling through dimensions was not.

According to the books he had been reading as of late, the only person who held the ability to send others through dimensions was a spell caster hailing from an unspecified location Japan. The irony. They had been there only some time ago. According to the rumors, she was a seer, a fortune-teller, and a witch, all rolled up in one. One of the most powerful beings in existence, known sometimes as the Time-Space Witch ((A/N: Hehehe, does anyone recognize the series she's from?)). Unfortunately, her existence and identity had never been verified. According to some believers, the powers weren't passed down through her lineage but rather as some sort of 'gift' or will bequeathed from a teacher to a student.

Ironically, it seemed that the person who could get them _out_ of this dimension probably wasn't _in_ this one. After all, what were the odds that, out of all the universes she was known for traveling through, she would be living in this one?

Shikamaru scratched his head, irritated that, with all the research he had done on this person, he had simply hit another brick wall. Imaginary wish-granters aside, it seemed that there was no person in the world able to send them back on their way home.

He wondered if he should tell the others that they might as well prepare to live the rest of their lives here, as there was little chance of getting back home. Haku and Zabuza's presence in this world might even be a symbol of it. This world had spirits from both this world and the other, meaning that in death, they would reach this world, and never escape.

Did that apply to the living as well? Now that they had gotten here, would they be stuck forever? And if this was possible, should he tell them of his suspicions?

'_Nah_,' he thought to himself. '_Too troublesome_.'

He held his face close to a torch perched on the wall, with his cigarette in his mouth, and pulled away once it caught on fire. Shikamaru watched the end of the butt slowly burn to ashes, telling himself that he didn't want to upset them.

Shikamaru told himself he wasn't angry that they were ignoring him. He told himself that he wasn't obsessing over the fact that Ino had broken up with him. He told himself the reason that he wasn't telling them to give up wasn't because he wanted them to pour themselves into a useless effort, but that he didn't want them to lose hope.

He really did want to believe the things he told himself.

Shikamaru jerked suddenly in mid-step, realizing that he was taking things much too seriously.

He might not be as close with his friends as he had originally thought he had been, but the world wasn't over yet. He'd figure out why they were angry with him. _Later_.

He paused, sensing oncoming heat. He jumped back slightly with the sudden appearance of a newspaper, piece of parchment, and a red feather on the ground. Sighing to himself, Shikamaru picked up the scroll and skimmed through it.

'In the meantime,' Shikamaru thought to himself, a slow smile growing at the sight of the headline and the morbid front cover. 'I think I'll keep myself busy.'

-

(1) Snape has his Legilimency, which allows him to look into a person's mind, and Neji has his Byakugan, which allows him to see and analyze all movements simultaneously. The reason why Snape couldn't get into Neji's mind is not that his mental barrier is as strong as Ino's, but because of the sunglasses, which deflected a bit of the Legilimency, though wizards haven't made that connection yet.  
(2) 'Aho' means dumbass in Japanese. It's an informal word, as most insults are.

**My Thinking Corner**

Merry Christmas (or, politically correctly: Happy Holidays)! Technically, since it's four in the morning, it's not Christmas anymore.. Damn, I would've started on Christmas Eve, but I went to my grandparents house. They apparently moved down to Houston when we weren't looking.

Well, I'm pretty tired, and it's damn late, so I'll just keep it short. And just so you know, often, different parts of my thinking corner are written at different times, so... yeah. Just random fact. Bye bye people.

By the way, I'm looking for someone to bounce around ideas with for my Bleach/HP stories. It won't be anything major, just smoothing things over. And I don't mean to offend any other friends or Betas by asking around for this either! You're all awesome, but I'm looking to see how the plot would fit in the Bleach-verse, so...yeah. Tired. Nighty-night. Seriously now.

Oh, just so you know, when the shinobi are alone, they speak Japanese. When they're speaking with people who speak English, they're speaking in English. I don't feel like italicizing or saying 'blank said in Japanese' every time they're talking in Japanese because, frankly, I'm too lazy.

The Sparrows' Given Names:  
Sai's: Isa  
Naruto's: Toruna  
Sakura's: Rakusa  
Shikamaru: Rumakashi/Ruma/Kashi  
Ino: Noi  
Neji: Jine  
Kiba: Baki (lol)

...Tenten's would've been 'ntente'... unpronounceable. I'm sorta glad there's no sparrow for her.

**Review Responses**

silent reader: Thank goodness. I was wondering if no one else shared my amusement, though I'm wondering if this story is causing me to lose my touch with comedy. I tried writing more for NGTH for a long time in a long time (does that make sense?), and I just couldn't get into it...! I'll remember about Viktor's accent. ...Or just delete all of the cameos he makes. Might be easier, after all. And wow... two in the morning, snow, and cows on the loose. Sounds horrible. x.x Anyway, let's just say that since it's magic and Kiba's scent is all wonky as of late, he couldn't sense the 'electric' ward. Malfoy doesn't look down on werewolves. He (as you can and/or will see) is scared shitless of them. Which will make it _really_ interesting, eh? A killer ninja werewolf... oh man... XD Though your guess about the lack of Neji/Sai conflict is not completely accurate. Some things happened (you'll probably find out in later chapters) and they're practically at each others throats (Neji more than Sai; Neji was more offended by said event). And I'm sorry, Itachi will not be in this story. And it's a bit late, so if you're still wondering who in the Akatsuki is present, can you ask me in your next review? Sorry. And no... Harry won't explode. Too messy. They'll "resolve" the situation before Harry confronts the shinobi about the map. I think. Haven't gotten there yet.

Eowyn:_"I was just thinking. If Dumbledore has to make eye contact with Shikamaru to  
read his mind, maybe a pair of mirrored sunglasses would help?"_  
Damn I feel like an idiot... Though, actually, I think an ordinary pair of sunglasses would work, so long as Dumbledore can't get eye-contact. Of course, Shikamaru hasn't realized that just yet. Ironically, that means Neji and Sai would have been best against the Legilimency, one constantly wearing sunglasses and the other with complete (if not excessive) mastery/control over his emotions, which is key to Occlumency.

shinigami: "_I love your story even if it's slow but you put kiba on two teams Ino, Kiba, __and Malfoy in the first team. Neji, Naruto, and Kiba_."  
Owie. Anyway, I fixed the repeat a while ago, I think, almost right after I posted the chapter.

Lachwen: "_YAY! Thank you so much for updating - this story just keeps getting more and more interesting (and I love Sai. And Naruto. "my worst best friend's best friend..." hehe) Anyway, I hope you get back from being grounded soon, and I LOVE the new chappie! Thank you for continuing to write, and I can't wait to read more!_"  
Thank you! (And yeah, Sai is awesome and really fun to write.)

dark672: "_It's good_"  
Short, sweet, and to the point. At four in the morning, you have no idea how much I appreciate this.

kaze mo: yay! wonderful update!  
Thank you!

**Omake: Cowardice**

Sickening. Putrid. Revolting. Stomach-churning. Driving. Enticing. Fear.

Kiba didn't like that smell.

He had to admit it: it wasn't all that bad. The smell made him almost sick to his stomach, but after only a few seconds of adjusting to this new scent, which he had never been able to smell so _clearly_, he had found that the twisting feeling in his stomach had become something new. Something exciting. Something Kiba wanted—_needed_ more of.

And it revolted Kiba at the same time that it was fear that he desired so much. He told himself that Malfoy's absolute fear of him didn't mean much. He told himself that breaking the news to Malfoy that they would later be working together on the same team would make his day—heck, it might have even made his _year_.

But it was because of Malfoy that he was feeling so damn miserable.

The scent fear rolled off of Malfoy's skin whenever Kiba was simply in the _same room_. The smell was nearly overwhelming, but after a moment of realizing that it was his adrenaline, his cold sweat, and a few bits and pieces of something else that he had been sensing, Kiba felt a rush of dread himself.

This was the same scent he had been smelling on _everyone_ within close range of him. He was sure that most of his friends would rather die than admit it, but it was true.

They all feared him.

'_I'm the friendliest guy in the group_!' Kiba wanted to cry out. '_Only Naruto makes friends better than me, but I'm even better at picking up girls than _him'

They were all scared of him.

And it was Malfoy's fault.

No, it wasn't Malfoy's fault that he had become a werewolf. But...

But it was his fault that he _knew_ this. If it weren't for Malfoy, he never would have recognized this.

Ignorance was bliss, and Malfoy lost him one of the few bits of happiness he still had.

The wizard had walked into the kitchen just a few moments ago, heading straight for the icebox to grab something to eat, not even noticing Kiba's presence until after he absentmindedly petted Akamaru on the head. He froze. That fear filled the entire room again for Kiba to bask and writhe in as Malfoy remembered that Akamaru rarely went anywhere without his master walking ahead or behind.

Almost—no,_definitely_ fearfully, Malfoy slowly turned his head to find that, much to his suspicion and fear, Kiba was sitting at the wooden table right behind him.

"Yo."

"...Hey," came the mumbled response as the wizard slowly backed away, his back to the primitive Hogwarts' version of a refrigerator.

An awkward silence hung in the air for a long time. Finally, Malfoy started rummaging through the cupboards again, back stiffened as if he was painfully aware of the werewolf at his back.

"Looking for this?" Kiba asked after Malfoy slowed down, unable to find whatever it was he was looking for. The blond jumped slightly at the sound of his voice, even though he _knew_ Kiba was sitting right behind him.

Malfoy turned his head and stared at the box in Kiba's hand. It was Naruto's "secret stash" of junk food—magical jelly beans, hopping chocolate frogs, bloody lollipops, wand-shaped licorice... No one ever really bothered to tell Naruto to stop sneaking to the village. They probably didn't care too much. It was in Naruto's nature to do the exact opposite as people told him to anyway.

He stared at the shoebox in Kiba's hand with wide eyes.

Kiba silently gritted his teeth, not fully understanding why he was making the offer in the first place, only to remember the promise he made to Ino to stop tormenting the wizard at every opportunity. He could have simply stopped torturing him—but why on earth was he acting _nice_?

He only made offers like this to _friends_. Everyone else can go to hell for all he cared.

Starting to feel awkward, holding a box in the air without any reaction, Kiba sighed and set it on the table, noting with irritation that Malfoy had chosen to pick up the candy-stashing box only _after_ Kiba was no longer touching it, as if second-hand skin contact would prevent the spread of his lycanthropy.

Well, it _would_, but so would ordinary skin contact as well.

He watched Malfoy rummage through the candy, apparently looking for a specific brand—_spoiled-little-brat-just-pick-one...!_—and Malfoy pretended that Kiba wasn't watching him, though Kiba noticed that his hand was actually trembling a little.

'_What the... _asshole_! If I wanted to, I could _really_give him something to be scared of..._'

Malfoy froze, finding an open plastic bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

"...Yours?" he asked shakily, holding it up for Kiba to look at.

"Oh yeah, sorry," he said, not feeling sorry at all, though at least a bit stupid that he had left an open bag of jelly beans while he had been pigging out with no one around. "I'll take that..."

He held his hand out to take the bag of jelly beans back. Malfoy stared at the offered hand and almost looked as if he'd refuse, only to quickly set the plastic bag back, shooting a hand past Kiba's to place it down on the wooden table.

Kiba stared at his raised hand, then the jelly beans on the table, and back at his hand again. He quietly picked it up, rolling up the top of the bag and tossing it back into the box of other candy, no longer in the mood to indulge his sweet tooth. He quickly made his way around the table, approaching Malfoy at a determined pace.

With every step he took forward, Malfoy took one backward until his back hit the wall and Kiba was slightly leaning down in his face, with a casual arm resting on the wall above Malfoy's head.

They stood in that position for what felt like ages until Kiba's head suddenly jerked forward, bared teeth dangerously close to Malfoy's face.

The wizard flinched, squeezing his eyes shut and tensing his shoulders, but nothing happened. No bite, no nip, no strike.

He cracked open an eyelid to nearly faint, finding a set of sharp canines flashing in front of his eye. He jerked back when Kiba let out a sudden rush of air from his mouth, seeming like a snarl with his clenched teeth. His head nearly hit the wall when he jerked back—Kiba helped Malfoy in this by giving him a rough shove. Now his head really _did_ hit the wall.

While Malfoy slumped down onto the ground, either from the impact between his skull and the wooden wall behind him or from relief that the werewolf was no longer in such a threatening position, Kiba left the room in irritable silence. He paused in the doorway for a moment, as if intending to make some scathing remark, but shook his head.

"..." The wizard opened his mouth to say something, only for the werewolf, back turned towards him, to leave the room, shaking his head.

"...ard." What was that? He couldn't hear the murmured word. Did he call him a bastard? Or something else? Was the werewolf angry? Disappointed? Upset? Enraged? All of the above?

It was hard to tell which one exactly, but Kiba was definitely _not_ happy...

Draco let out a deep breath, realizing that he had been holding it in for quite a long time. He clasped his hands together in a feeble attempt to stop the trembling; he had a feeling he had, in a way, just failed Ino. He had told her that he had no problem with anyone in the group, aside from the fact that they all despised him and that he was constantly fearing for his life.

He couldn't help his reaction towards Inuzuka. Even after all these weeks, he just didn't seem 'mentally prepared' to deal with... with one of _those_ things...

Muggles were one thing. Werewolves were another.

They, after all, could tear you limb from limb. And though he didn't consider the rest of them to be wizards _or_ Muggles, putting them in their own category made it much easier to tolerate their presence. But Inuzuka... Too damn dangerous.

Malfoy shuddered, _really_ wanting to talk to Ino about his fear of Kiba, even though he knew she would most likely just laugh it off. In fact, she would probably even taunt him for his juvenile fears.

Being a wizard, he of all people should know that werewolf wasn't an easily transferable disease without blood contact or saliva.

Malfoy was sorely tempted to bang his head against the wall a second time, realizing what Kiba had said to him before leaving, realizing that it was true, and realizing that it was a fact that he could never seem to change no matter how much he tried.

"_Coward_," the werewolf had whispered.

And it was an undeniable truth.

-

_I hope that was alright for my first mini-story thing? I meant it to be funnier with Kiba beating the stuffing out of him (but only a little, because if Kiba really put any spirit into it, I don't think they'd be able to put him back together...), but I guess my mood's just a bit off and it went from some comedy to whatever this was. I wasn't sure whether to post this separately, since it's just random junk, or just keep it at the end of a chapter._

-

FINISHED! WITH EVERYTHING! MUAHAHAHA! And... it's 4:06 AM. I started responding to reviews at 9-10 PM (technically yesterday).

Hm...

-passes out-


	15. Chapter 14

**HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE! I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH AND THANKS FOR ALL OF YOUR WONDERFUL REVIEWS THAT I LOVE SO MUCH! AND IRISH CREAM! I LOVE BAILEYS IRISH CREAM!**

Chapter 14: Getting Ready for the Worse

"I'm bored," Draco said for the umpteenth time as he scratched Akamaru behind the ears. "I can't do any magic around here, or else your owners will freak and probably try to use it as another excuse to kill me _again_. And I can't just leave this place, with everyone in the Wizarding world thinking the entire Malfoy lineage is dead, and it has to _stay _that way or else it _will_ be."

Draco rubbed the huge dog's fur, thinking about the events that had come to pass and wondering how much worse his situation could have been if Dumbledore hadn't offered to use his mysterious 'power' over the mercenaries to prevent them from attempting to kill him should they decide to ignore Ino's support for him. Or maybe what it would be like if Voldemort and his Akatsuki had caught him.

He shuddered and immediately decided to appreciate how well his life currently was, compared to what it had been the year before and what it could have been now. He had the only slightly unwilling protection of mercenaries, which was further secured by Dumbledore's influence over them. His own personal quarters were modeled after home, large and spacious, and the castle provided for his every need and whim.

Plus, he was _alive_.

Dumbledore was rather helpful, supplying Draco with small trinkets, some helping him understand the Japanese language so that the Hachinin didn't have to speak in English all the time, and others helping him pass the time.

But it was still boring. He had long since solved all of the Muggle 'jigsaw puzzles' that he had been given. Plus, these were _children's games_.

He sighed, starting to lean back, but jerked straight up at the sound of a door getting kicked open. Akamaru immediately got up to his paws with a wagging tail, barked, and ran towards the arrival. Definitely Kiba.

"Heya, Malfoy," he said, with an armful of food. He looked around the empty room and sniffed, his nose twitching almost imperceptibly to those who weren't watching him closely, almost automatically aware of their his friends' absence. "Where is everybody?"

Malfoy winced inwardly, once again reminded of Kiba's condition. Just looking at him brought chills up his spine, imagining the snarling, salivating monster he would soon become, and his ability to draw on his werewolf attributes—the canine-like demeanor, the uncanny sense of smell, and his unnatural speed and strength...—only served to heighten his wariness. If Kiba was able to use his werewolf senses without even becoming a werewolf, did this mean he was always going to be contagious, even in his human form?

"They left. Something about training," he muttered, watching Kiba, barking and yipping, wrestle with his dog on the ground.

"Oh yeah, in the forest," he said with a nod. Draco frowned.

"Why are you all... dusty?"" he asked Kiba.

"I was spying on girls," he said, raising his eyebrows and giving him a toothy grin. "If you crawl through the pipes and stuff in the walls, you can get anywhere. Care to join me next time? Fun _and _informative."

"No," Draco said quickly, shaking his head. He had a feeling that the werewolf would rather shut him up in one of those 'wall pipes' and keep him stuck in there.

Kiba shrugged. "Then don't complain when you've got nothing to do," he warned.

"Yeah, I did—wait, how did you know I was bored?"

"Sixth sense," he said casually. "You smell like you've been indoors _way_ too long. Hn, anyway, I need to bring them their dinner. Are you coming? Might learn something useful."

"Um, sure," Draco said. Wait minute... Kiba mentioned a forest... "Wait, where are they exactly?"

"The forest," Kiba said, pointing out of the conveniently placed window to the forest where the sun was beginning to set.

"You're... you're bloody crazy!" Draco said. "And your friends are _training_ there?! There are... there are giants and werewolves and spiders and _other_ monsters inside there! And the sun is beginning to set!"

"Well, I'm not sure about those other creatures anymore, but I'd say the werewolf is standing _here_," he said, the grin on his face twitching slightly, as he scratched his ear with forced casualness. "But I guess if I get them their dinner, there _will_ be a werewolf in there."

Draco winced, feeling stupid. He looked back up at Kiba, who was still rubbing the back of his ear where the faint scar ended. He looked away quickly after seeing the scarred mess that was at once and ordinary looking throat. There were some jagged marks under his chin and, from the looks of it, his skin had been torn past his neckline and possibly down past his collar bone.

Which meant that when he got bitten, it _hadn't_ been a clean nip. It looked more like he had been thrashed by a hound of dogs of some sort, with his neck torn up the way it was.

"'Sides," Kiba said enthusiastically, "you're in safe hands! If you're going to die, then it's only because I'm killing you. No way am I just going to let some monster chew on your bones before _I_ do!"

Draco gulped nervously. These "Muggles"—he wasn't quite sure what else to call them—were dangerous!

-

Kiba was right about one thing—he _didn't_ get attacked by any magical creature in the forest. And it seemed that the mercenaries _were_ out to get him, whether it was on purpose or not.

Draco found this out when Kiba and Akamaru, who were both leading him through the forest, lunged and tackled him to the ground. At that very moment, there was a whistling sound as dozens of dark objects passed by overhead.

'_Great Merlin, it's _touching_ me!_' Malfoy thought frantically, his entire body freezing up as it came into contact with his greatest fear. '_It _touched_ me!_'

Kiba jumped up to his feet shouting at the perpetrators.

"_Are you guys trying to KILL us?_" the brown-haired mercenary snarled at the dark clearing as he ran forward. "_You nearly ruined the food! I brought you guys dinner!_"

As Draco approached the clearing, he saw Naruto and Neji breathing heavily, though both of their attention was now on Kiba. The rest of the group was present as well, watching in safety from behind various trees. The only one not present was Shikamaru.

"Hey!" Naruto said, turning his back on Neji to wave at the new arrivals. "Sorry about that! Didn't see ya!"

"Even if _you_ didn't, _Neji_ did!" Kiba said, pointing an accusing finger at Neji. Draco squinted in the darkness, this being one of the few times he had ever seen Neji out of his now-usual outfit of Muggle sunglasses, hat, and a cane.

"Yeah, I did," the man admitted easily, without a single moment's hesitation.

He had, at first, thought the Hyuuga was blind, but after some time, he had finally remembered his voice to be the assassin whose mask had no face from their first meeting. It seemed that Neji, their 'surveillance system' had, perhaps, other means of seeing.

It was here that he realized that Neji's eyes were pale, which supported the 'blind' theory.

"You're staring," Neji said bluntly.

"You wouldn't know I was staring if you weren't staring back at me," Draco answered automatically, though he immediately reprimanded himself silently for possibly egging on a killer.

"Your logic is undeniable, but, in my currently unique case, it is untrue," Neji said calmly, without any hint of venom in his voice.

Draco stared at the man, mouth slightly agape, unsure of how to respond to this show of non-unfriendliness. "Um... okay," he said. "Lesson learned."

Oddly enough, the man actually seemed rather content with that answer.

"So why am I here again?" the wizard asked Kiba.

"_Well_..." Kiba said slowly, a grin growing on his face. "You _were_ bored."

Draco stared at Kiba, his eyes widening in horror of what was to come.

"...No. Absolutely no bloody freaking way... You can _not_ be serio—!"

-

_He was burning._

_Naruto clutched his stomach. He was positive that he was not conscious, from the fact that he seemed to be currently floating in the middle of darkness with the ground nowhere in sight. However, he also knew that this was no ordinary dream, from the burning pain in his stomach._

_Clenching his teeth, he struggled to move his hands from their protective position over his stomach to lift the front of his T-shirt. What he found—or didn't—was what he had feared. _

_The seal that had been on his stomach was gone._

Naruto jerked awake, falling out of his hammock with a loud thud. "Ow!" he yelped, rubbing his head.

It was the fourth time that night he had had that dream, and he had woken up in the middle of the night several times already that past week. He looked around. The room was still rather dark, but bits of sunlight crept through the window. It was probably about five in the morning, far earlier than he needed to be awake.

Naruto didn't bother climbing back into the hammock, not feeling that rest was worth another nightmare like that. He leaned back against the stone wall, sitting on the cold cobblestone floor. He really didn't want to go back to sleep. The dream of the Kyuubi still unnerved him, despite the fact that he had already woken up. Was it just a dream, he wondered, or was it a sign that the Kyuubi was starting to break through?

Naruto cautiously lifted up the front of his shirt to peer down at his stomach, where the seal of the Kyuubi had been and still remained, and let out a relieved sigh.

"It doesn't matter how hard you wish," a voice said, floating past the doorway. "You will never have abs as great as mine."

Naruto immediately dropped the front of his shirt and looked up to see Sai standing in the doorway. "Well at least I don't go around in short shirts just to show off my belly," he grumbled, pulling down his shirt immediately. "What do you want?"

"Sleep," Sai said, without his usual scathing remarks. "But because of you and your furry, demonic little problem, it seems I will not be able to do so until I do a small touch up."

He pulled out a bottle of ink and an ink brush. "I believe the seal is weakening again," he said.

"That would explain a lot," Naruto mumbled, remembering the frightening dreams he had been having as of late. Sai sat down across from him, and Naruto lifted the front of his shirt, where the seal of the Shiki Fūjin was, slightly faded at the edges but appearing overall fine. "Hn, it looks completely normal to me," he said. "Are you sure it's your seal?"

"It is definitely my seal that is weakening," Sai said, "or else I would not have had the same dream of death, destruction, and that demon as you did. Everyone else's seals begin to fade and become much lighter when they are weakened or after use, so it is easier to know if their seals need to be re-inked. My seal on you, however, is drawn directly over your old seal, which doesn't fade at all. When my seal begins to fade, you can't tell how faded it is because it's the same color underneath."

"...Then why don't you move the seal to a different spot?" Naruto asked bluntly.

"As usual, your intellect has failed to shock me," he said. "Everyone else's seals drain your abilities. My seal serves two purposes. The first is to drain your chakra when it overflows as well—though to a lesser extent in comparison to everybody else's. The second purpose is to increase the strength of your original seal, because without it, none of the other seals would work at all and we would have a rogue demon running about pillaging villa... cities."

Naruto nodded as Sai retraced the seal on his stomach, deep in focus and probably in no mood to talk. Although Sai claimed that reapplying a weakening seal was just a simple matter of retracing the marks with a mix of chakra and ink, Naruto wanted to avoid any mistakes as much as possible.

After several moments of tense silence, Sai finished, recapping his ink bottle and putting his supplies away.

"It will dry in a few minutes," Sai said.

"Thanks," Naruto replied. He waited patiently for the ink artist to leave but quickly realized that he wasn't going to. "...Uh, you need something?"

"I'm just making sure you do not end up smearing any of my hard work," Sai said idly. "I will stay until it is completely dry."

"Oh. Okay."

They both looked around in an awkward silence.

"You know..." Sai said suddenly.

"What?"

"Shikamaru is gone."

"...What?"

"He left. Last night, he didn't go to bed, and none of us realized it."

"You've got to be kidding m—!" Naruto began, immediately getting up to his feet when Sai clamped a hand over the blond's mouth and forced him to sit back down on the ground.

"There is nothing we can do about it," Sai said, glancing at Naruto's stomach to make sure his seal hadn't been smeared with the sudden movement. "It's a mission."

"A mission? Without us?" he said, confused.

"One for Dumbledore, apparently," he said. "He left a note on his chair. It read, 'On a mission for Dumbledore.' That was all he had written, but it was rather self-explanatory, don't you think? He'll probably be back in the morning."

"So he didn't even tell us where he went?" Naruto asked, looking enraged.

"He doesn't want us following him," he repeated. "Which means that it's probably dangerous, he was told to work alone, or he would simply rather work on his own."

Naruto didn't say anything in response to that.

"...He stinks," he muttered.

"He only has us avoiding him like the plague so that Dumbledore would not be able to get any closer to us than he already is."

"He still stinks."

Sai frowned. "Your seal is dry now. I'll be goin—"

"Wait," Naruto said, before the older shinobi could leave.

"What is it?" he asked, starting to look a bit tired.

"Just a quick question... why do you think Neji's Byakugan is screwing up?" Naruto asked.

"I believe it may a combination of various factors," Sai said, "though there is no evidence to support any specifics."

"Why don't you get evidence? Talk to Neji. Ask him about it."

Sai frowned.

Naruto knew that Sai actually had a distinct dislike for Neji, and vice versa. He just didn't know why. "You ask him. I'm pretty sure he's figured it out by himself by now."

"Is it about Tenten?" Naruto asked.

Sai's aloof posture stiffened slightly. "I told you before, it's a combination of things. And if _you _don't want to ask the source directly, then I don't think you're likely to get any answer soon. Neji is the one with all of the answers, not me."

"But you know something."

"I know a lot of things," Sai quipped, ending the conversation as he closed Naruto's door and left.

Alone in his bedroom, Naruto pulled his shirt back up again to stare at the seal on his belly again, a bold inky darkness against his tanned skin. Several other seals painted his body, one corresponding seal for each member of his surrogate family. He smiled grimly at the idea that he shared a mark with everyone in a group, the only one with a 'special connection' to each person.

"Stupid demon..." he murmured, climbing back into his hammock with heavy eyelids, no longer fearing sleep now that Sai ensured him several more nights rest until the next seal weakened. "Making me wake up over something so small..."

Had he been more awake, he probably would have heard the nearly silent whisper in the corner of his room.

"_I knew it..."_

-

"I just don't get it," Naruto later muttered, relaying the story to some of the others later that morning. "Sai's so...weird."

"Well... he doesn't like Neji all too much," Sakura said thoughtfully. "Maybe he just doesn't care about whether Neji's Byakugan gets better or not."

"That's just too cold for Sai. He might not be real...uh, nice, but... well, he's better than when we first met him. He's not _that _mean."

"Yeah he is," Sakura muttered.

"I know!" Ino said. "Maybe he's jealous of Neji because he liked Tenten too or something!"

They both stared at her and rolled their eyes.

"Not everything revolves around love, you know," Sakura said bluntly.

"Ah, figures," a new voice said. They all looked up to see Shikamaru standing by the doorway, yawning. "You guys are always here."

Ino looked up at him and immediately turned away, turning slightly red. Shikamaru looked away as well, looking rather embarrassed. Naruto and Sakura exchanged glances, unsure of whether to leave the room or not. Shikamaru seemed to notice this and sighed.

"I have nothing personal in my intentions," he said before they would leave the kitchen, which was more like the living room where they just talked when Shikamaru would be in the actual living room staring out the window and filling the room with smoke. "I need to know where Kiba is. And Sai too."

"Kiba and Akamaru... they're probably at Hogsmeade," Sakura said. "Kiba mentioned tagging along with some of the students, since we're supposed to be making sure they stay out of trouble anyway."

Shikamaru paused, looking a bit troubled by this information. "And Sai?" he asked.

"Somewhere in the castle," Naruto said. "I think I pissed him off today, though I don't know why."

Shikamaru sighed. The day he realized he needed to discuss a part of his plan with certain individuals, they were all gone. In addition, the first person he would ask for help locating a missing person was Kiba, the one he was actually looking for, who was in another village. And the second person, Neji, was... up in his tower, like he usually was.

"That's... probably not good," Shikamaru said, trying to lessen the tense atmosphere practically emanating between himself and Ino. "Ah, by the way, I have new positions for you all in the castle. You all stay in your general posts in the castle, but Sakura, after hours when you're finished doing whatever it is that Pince has us do whenever we go to the library, you patrol the second and third floor. Ino, you and Neji are to stay in the Divination Tower after hours. Neji will do the surveillance. At times that his sight goes out, you make sure it's completely safe for him, keeping him out of dangers that he would not be able to avoid, like sharp objects and things that may fall on him, or may obstruct his movement. After you do that, you will patrol the general grounds of Hogwarts, but stay off of floors four to seven. Stick with the towers. Naruto, you and your kage bunshins will go throughout the entire school, except for the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh floor."

Naruto nodded. "So I guess Kiba, Akamaru, and Sai split the top ones then?" he asked.

Shikamaru frowned. "No. Kiba and Akamaru are outside on the grounds, mostly the area bordering the Forbidden Forest, as well as the inner parts of the castle."

"Wait, Sai has to patrol all four floors?" Sakura said incredulously. The others looked surprised by this as well. Was Shikamaru losing it?!

"What about me?" Naruto asked. "I could handle it. The headaches aren't _that_ bad when all the information comes back. I can live with it!"

"That's something I'm going to discuss with _Sai_," Shikamaru said uncomfortably, trying to keep his voice sounding calm and collected.

"Did he piss you off or something?" the jinchuuriki asked incredulously.

"I just need to explain to him why he's in charge of so many floors, and wide ones to boot," Shikamaru said. "You guys, on the other hand, are not involved with this, and I have no reason to divulge these confidential matters to you—" He faltered slightly at Ino's glare.

He and Ino met eyes for a long moment. No one said anything as they abruptly broke eye contact at the same time.

"Ahem... right. Well..." Shikamaru paused after clearing his throat, looking at them all with an expression of awkwardness written all over his face. "See you guys later, I guess."

The moment he shut his door, Ino hit her head against the table.

"God," she mumbled, her voice muffled by the wood in front of her face and by the hair that covered her head like a curtain over her face. "Like I want to kill myself... or that _jerk_."

"You might feel guilty about breaking up with him at a time like this, but the rest of _us_ just feel awkward whenever you two end up in the same room," Naruto muttered. "Can't tell who has it worse: you two or us."

"You didn't really have to break up with him..." Sakura said, trying to comfort her friend.

"It's a lot easier to avoid him if we weren't going out," Ino replied, sighing.

"Well, we could always disobey orders and hang out with him anyway," Naruto suggested.

"Probably shouldn't. Shikamaru probably has another set of intentions in his orders that he hadn't told us," Ino said, "but he's right about having us avoid him. He doesn't want Dumbledore to know that we're still conspiring against him, and since he's the only one who usually comes in direct contact with Dumbledore... Well, since Dumbledore seems to be able to see things in a person's mind through eye contact, Shikamaru is in most danger of letting him know. So we relocate that memory so that Dumbledore can't find it. And the more time he spends with those present at that meeting—all six of us—the more likely it is that our presence would trigger his memory and move it back to where Dumbledore would find it."

"Well, all the more reason we ought to figure out how Dumbledore reads minds and how we could counteract it, right?" Sakura said. "Oh, and, by the way, I managed to narrow the possibilities down a bit. I know for sure that whatever he uses, it's Dark Magic, or at least some obscure form of it."

"Great," her friend joked, running her fingers through her hair. "That's only, what, half the library left to go?"

"More like two-fifths," she sighed. "Two-fifths light, two-fifths dark, and one-fifth on Muggles. I also found that half of the information on Muggles is pretty good for a laugh if you're into pretty stale, sad humor. Most of that section is either completely inaccurate or incredibly outdated. They still think that Muggles believe electricity is some sort of divine power."

"Speaking of divine powers that nobody really understands," Naruto said, "there's supposed to be some Quidditch practice thing I keep hearing about. Malfoy mentioned it before. Something about broomsticks and balls. That's all I got before I started dozing off."

"_And_, speaking of which, where _is_ Malfoy anyway?" Ino asked.

"He's passed out in his room," Sakura said. "Don't you think fifteen miles was too much for an out-of-shape wizard?"

"Nah," Naruto said, shaking his head. "We managed to do it, and we're _way_ out of shape. I don't think it should have taken that guy, what, twelve hours to finish? Besides, he managed to get that far eventually. And plus, now that he's all conked out, we can't listen to him complain about how his life fell apart and how he has nothing to do all day long. Surprise! He's got something to do now: run fifteen miles, pass out, recover, and run as soon as he can move again. We've got a schedule for him!"

-

Kiba and Akamaru were having the times of their lives in Hogsmeade. It was a feeling of freedom that he hadn't felt since the day they had come to Hogwarts. It seemed that the only time Hogwarts' wards were let down were during the weekends during the Hogsmeade trips, allowing Kiba to run around the village wreaking havoc on candy shops and anything that had free samples.

Chewing on licorice wands, Kiba and Akamaru roamed around Hogsmeade, taking in the sights and occasionally hitting on girls and sometimes showing off his impressive scar, telling them the dramatic tale of his great battle against eight powerful wizards. Considering how the scar was on his neck of all deadly places, they were rather impressed.

'_Women_,' Kiba thought gleefully to himself, his mood better than it had been in weeks. '_No matter where you go, they're all generally the same..._'

Of course, he bought a book from Zonko's, which was having a 'closing sale'. There wasn't any particular reason for buying said book. He just felt like it. Apparently, the store was being bought by some new company and the old man wanted to get rid of everything by January. He bought a large box of tea for Neji. He'd probably like that. He mentioned something about tea readings for his class, whatever that was.

So, Kiba walked into what seemed to be one of the most popular places in all of Hogsmeade, with his box of tea occupying the chair next to him.

"Hello, you must be new around here," a woman said, approaching him. "I'm Rosmerta. What would you like to drink today?"

"Um..." Kiba briefly ran through a mental list of all the beverages he knew of. ...Water, soda, and beer. At a popular place like this, with so many students, they'd probably actually ask for an ID, so no alcoholic beverages... Sodas were a Muggle drink. "Water?"

The woman smiled. "So you can make your tea?"

"Huh?" Oh. Kiba looked down at his box of tea. "Nah, I hate tea. It's too bland for me."

"Well, water seems a bit blander than tea," Rosmerta said. "Might I recommend butterbeer? It's a drink common to all seasons, it's of low cost, it has only a _smidgen_ of alcohol, and it's delicious."

"Um... sure," Kiba said. "It's not made of real butter or anything though, is it? Like, melted butter stuck in a cup and mixed with beer... or something?"

"Merlin no!" she exclaimed, laughing at his 'joke'. "Goodness, that would taste horrible wouldn't it? What made you think such a thing?"

"Well, the 'butter' and the 'beer' must have thrown me off a bit," he said, shrugging. She looked puzzled by his logic, so Kiba quickly changed topics. "Yeah, I'll have it. How much will it be?"

"A sickle and three knuts," Rosmerta said. Kiba handed her a Galleon and took the change. Moments later, he received his order, and a sparrow. Kiba looked at the small messenger bird named Baki that his friends had bought back during the summer and unrolled the tiny inch-wide scroll and read the short message.

_Go back to Hogwarts soon when you're done doing whatever it is that you're doing. -Shikamaru_

Kiba sniffed slightly, wrinkling his nose.

The word '_THREE_' immediately popped into his mind.

Parchment. Grass. Mustiness. And tinge of magic in all three scents.

He stuffed the message back into his pocket and allowed the bird to fly away and then angrily turned around to the three people standing behind him. "Do you _mind_—?" he began to say in English, only to find that there was _no one_ hovering over his shoulder.

He frowned. There was definitely someone there, but...

Kiba got up and left the Three Broomsticks, shaking his head. He could finish the drink on the way back to Hogwarts anyway. Plus, even if someone had been reading over his shoulder, he doubted they were able to read the Japanese scribble very quickly.

It was a quick jog for Kiba and Akamaru back to Hogwarts, even with the large box of tea under one arm and the bottle of butterbeer that preventing him from running on all fours. Of the entire team, Kiba was completely aware that physically, he was in better shape than most of them. It was a fact that he held dear, considering the fact that that was what he was best for: sheer strength, great stamina and brute force.

As a matter of fact, considering how every single one of his techniques _depended_ on his physical fitness, strength, and speed, anything less than 'most fit' would completely crush his pride. On the other hand, it rather stung that Sakura, as thin as she was, was physically more powerful than anyone in the group.

He smelled Shikamaru and glanced around. Odd... their leader was nowhere in sight—ah, spoke too soon. There was Shikamaru coming around the corner. Kiba wrinkled his nose. Was he a bit off today? This was the second time his nose had made a mistake. Of course, he was still adjusting to his fluctuating senses.

"Hey," Kiba said. "You wanted to talk with me?"

"New arrangements," he said. "Instead of you just randomly roaming the halls, I want you to patrol the grounds outside—near the lake, near the forest, near Hagrid's hut, so long as it's outside the castle and within Hogwarts' boundaries, it's your territory. Outside, you could mark as much territory as you want. Filch has been complaining about how someone's pet is peeing in the hallways."

"And you think that 'someone's pet' is me?" Kiba asked.

"Not too many other non-canine creatures mark their territory," Shikamaru answered. "Plus, it's _acidic_. I don't think any other creature in this world can corrode substances with their piss. Just... mark your territory outside or in the bathroom like any other person—not in the _castle_ for god's sake."

"It's not _just_ for the sake of marking territory," Kiba said with a grin. "It annoys him too. And Ms. Norris, but only when I hit her once."

Shikamaru nodded and paused, as if unsure of whether to say what was on his mind, until he finally pulled himself back together and regained his lazy composure.

"...After the first month, symptoms will begin to appear every night: less of a need to sleep, greater endurance, and a bit more brute strength. In the second month, those symptoms that become active at night also occur during the day, you'll experience a sudden increase in your ability to track scents, and around times of the full moon, your hair will thickens a bit at night. At three months, you should probably have finished adjusting to your new physiological abilities as they lessen slightly and finally stay at one level without any sudden changes. Like finishing puberty. Except there are few obvious physical changes. And, in the fourth month, you experience your first transformation," he said.

Kiba stared.

Shikamaru uncomfortable shifted from one foot to another. "That's how it generally is for werewolves," he said, in case Kiba's silence was because this was all too big for him to deal with and understand at once. Might as well get it over with in one go though. "Though it's not _exact_."

"So... if I'm a werewolf, I'll have my transformation thing in December," he said thoughtfully. "I always wanted to turn into a raging beast around my friends! ...Merry Christmas, guys. I'm gonna _eat_ you!"

Kiba laughed but was surprised that it didn't feel totally fake. He was honestly rather amused with himself, in fact.

"According to the school records for teachers' eyes only," Shikamaru said, ignoring the joke that he actually found somewhat depressing, "there was a student attending Hogwarts some twenty years ago. His classmates were completely unaware that he had lycanthropy because every night of the full moon, they would send him to a place called the Shrieking Shack—"

"At Hogsmeade," Kiba said suddenly, remembering the little shack on top of a desolate hill—a popular location for tourists to watch from a distance.

"Yes. There was a secret tunnel leading to the Shrieking Shack. It was on our map. They sent him there and kept him inside until it was safe for him to leave. There was only one near-death incident when another student fell victim to a prank and was nearly attacked by the werewolf student."

"So... that's our solution?" he asked. "Keep me locked up until it's safe?"

"If you don't like the idea—" Shikamaru said hastily.

"No, no, it's fine," Kiba said, a grin growing on his face. "Perfect, in fact! We won't get caught. This is good! Very good..."

For a minute, Shikamaru actually looked rather pleased with himself and with Kiba's easy acceptance of the situation, but the moment was lost when he recovered his 'I'm-too-lazy-to-have-facial-expressions' look.

"Before you go," he said to Kiba, "where's Sai?"

Kiba paused, lifting his head slightly in the air and taking a whiff.

...Okay, that didn't work.

He tried again, taking several deeper breaths, and pointed north. "You could check the astronomy tower. I smell a freakishly large amount of ink in that direction."

Shikamaru nodded and left. Once Shikamaru's back was turned, Kiba's grin faded slightly. He wasn't all too happy spending the night in some dusty old shack that smelled like sweat, fur, drool, and mustiness. Though throughout his entire life, he had adjusted to these natural smells, the Shrieking Shack smelled almost overwhelmingly strong.

But Kiba didn't mind praising the genius. Shikamaru was stressed out. He stank of fear, but at least it wasn't of him, like with the wizard, or for him, like with his friends. He cocked his head to the side, however, realizing what Shikamaru smelled most strongly off.

'_He smells..._' he thought to himself raising an eyebrow in curiosity at his leader's back, '_...like he's been doused in _magic.'

-

"So let me get this straight," Sai said. "You want me to practically dedicate my very _existence_ to patrolling these floors?"

"Not your existence."

"But my time."

"Yes."

"All of it."

"...Okay."

Shikamaru frowned. That was surprisingly easy. Perhaps frighteningly so. Even by Sai's standards. "You have a condition," he said bluntly.

Sai shrugged. "Not a condition. A question," he replied. "You're the smartest, strategy-wise, out of our entire group, so I will not _completely_ doubt your judgment. But you're separating me from the group, isolating me. Is this on purpose? Are you spiting me because you've become distant from everyone else?"

He stared back at the older shinobi, feeling slightly more than just annoyed. _He_ distanced himself from _them_? It was the other way around! "_Sai_—"

"I apologize," Sai said, not looking sorry at all. "You misunderstood my words. And I wasn't done with my speech. I was just making a... an 'expressive pause', meant to give you a moment to think to yourself."

"Over the two years I've known you, I never know you were a speech person."

"Then I suppose Naruto must be rubbing off on me for the worse," Sai said. "I know that you aren't much of a vengeful person. You aren't spiting me by isolating me, just because the others are coming to you less and less for issues both personal and vital to our survival. But what I do know is that you have some sort of secret purpose behind all of this. You do have an ulterior motive right? One you're not telling me?"

"I—"

"Cannot tell me," Sai said. "I know. It's completely understandable. We are not idiots. Well... correction: _I _am not an idiot. Can't speak for everyone else after all... I'm not asking what you're planning to do. In all likelihood, you probably can't tell me and this is a situation in which we cannot be allowed to know, or I won't _want_ to know. So I'm not going to bother asking. I just want to know and make sure that there _is_ an advantageous ulterior motive to sending me to the top floor, right?"

"Right," Shikamaru said, nodding.

"And so, as long as you have one, you might as well tell me what you _really_ want me to do, since I'm not to know the situation. If I cannot be allowed to know the complete details situation, I would like my orders to be at least a little bit more detailed," he said.

Shikamaru shrugged, knowing that even this emotionally disfigured shinobi might not like these commands...

"There's nothing really specific... You don't have to spend the nights here or anything—though if you can at least on occasion, then feel free to do so. Just... spend as much time away from the others as much as possible. You are not to speak to them. You will not communicate in any way to _anyone _unless it is an extremely important issue. Avoid company at all costs."

"So basically, I'm doing to myself what interrogators usually do to psychologically torture prisoners of battle?"

"...Yes. If you want to put it that way, then yes," Shikamaru said, nodding.

"Are you _sure_ you aren't spiting me for some reason?" Sai asked him.

-

"Where do you think Shikamaru was last night?" Naruto asked.

"Not sure," Sakura answered. "I wasn't even aware of the fact that he had left."

"Has that owl always been there?" Ino said suddenly.

"Don't change the subject," her friend chided. "This is important."

"No," she insisted. "I'm serious. Where did that owl come from?"

"What owl—? " Naruto said, turning around. "Oh. ...Where _did _that owl come from?"

The tawny brown owl, having finally captured their attention, flapped from its perch in the living room to the kitchen table where the three were chatting.

"Oh, it brought us the newspaper," he said, picking up the headlines. "Uh..."

**Terror at the Ministry Continues – Exploding Ministry Official Case Still Unsolved!**

Naruto winced at the picture of the front cover, which was decorated with pictures of the bodies. It reminded him of Deidara's clay explosions, only it was obvious to the trained eye, such as a shinobi's, that this person's cause of death had been different from Deidara's usual technique. This person had been blown up from the inside, probably centering around the stomach area.

"Ow!" Naruto said, dropping the newspaper and snatching his hand back as the newspaper owl pecked him hard on the hand.

"It wants something, and I'm sure it's not your thanks," Ino said. "Anyone here going to pay the bird?"

"I'm not paying any money for an English newspaper," Naruto snorted. "I can barely read that stuff for ten minutes before I get a headache. Plus, half the junk is just propaganda!"

The owl hooted sharply, looking both shocked and annoyed that it hadn't and wasn't going to be paid for its services. Offended, it flapped its wings and, picking up the newspaper, soared out of a conveniently placed window.

"Huh... well that was random," the blond muttered. "...And why do we have a window here?"

As if on cue, the window disappeared.

"What was that...?" a person asked, yawning as he struggled to enter the room without collapsing from the aches he must have been experiencing from the laps he ran.

"Malfoy...!" Ino said with a grin. "You're conscious!"

"Really now...?" he said. "I wasn't aware of that. But was that an owl?"

"Yeah," Sakura said. "Was it yours?"

"I don't have one anymore," he said, dragging himself to a seat at the table with as much dignity as he could maintain.

"It looked like a public one," Naruto said. "It had the newspaper and stuff."

"Oh," he said, looking around. "...Where's the newspaper?"

"It left."

"The newspaper?"

"The owl. _With_ the newspaper."

"Why the bloody hell would it do that? And you paid for it?"

"No."

"Ugh..." he mumbled. "Great. My only connection to the outside world was that newspaper, and now the post-owl flew off with it..."

"Hey, _we're_ connected in the outside world," Ino said. "What about us?"

"Yesterday, you guys forced me to run _how many _hours again?" he asked. "I'm sorry. I can't remember, _I lost count_. Excuse me if I'm in too much pain to talk to you sadists..."

"I remember. It was twelve," Naruto answered. "Twelve hours and forty-six minutes."

"Oh joy," Draco said sarcastically.

"Well, if you weren't so out of shape, you could have shortened it to at _least_ ten," Naruto said.

"_Out of shape_?! Let's see _you guys_ do it!"

"We _did_. In six hours. At a slow and _unsteady _pace so we wouldn't lose you in the forest to get eaten by some sort of giant man-eating slug or whatever."

"...Oh," he mumbled.

"Say," Sakura said. "That owl came here because you subscribed to the newspaper, right?"

"Yeah," Draco said.

"So... if an owl can find you, what stops Voldemort—oh, don't wince, it's just a _name_, you loser," Sakura said. "_Anyway_, what stops him from sending you an owl and figuring out where you are that way?"

He shrugged. "How should I know?"

"Well then aren't you putting us in danger?" Naruto asked, looking annoyed.

"Look, guys, don't gang up on him," Ino said. "If You-Know-Who wasn't bright enough to use an owl to find out where _Harry Potter_ lived, then he isn't going to use an owl and find out where _Malfoy_, of all people, is."

"I guess you've got a point," Sakura said. "If it's that easy to track a person down using their age-old communication methods and he hadn't even thought of using it, then Voldemort's an idiot. Malfoy. Stop. Wincing. For god's sake, it's just a _name_!"

"You can't just say that!" he said.

"Why can't Sakura say 'Voldemort'?" Ino asked suddenly, feeling annoyed with Malfoy's fear of a word. "No, seriously. I'm curious. Why not? A name is a word or a combination of words by which a person, place, thing, or object of thought is designated, called, or known as. And 'Voldemort' pretty much falls under the category of name. It's not a verb. I can't _Voldemort_ you. And it's not some magic word either. If I wave a wand and say 'Voldemort-o!', _no one _is going to fall over dead."

"It's just... not... done..." he said, gritting his teeth and struggling to control his flinches at his name.

"I. Just. Did. It," she replied smugly. "_Now_ it's done."

"Yamanaka!"

"Malfoy!"

"There's something about these two..." Naruto mused, watching the heated conversation with fascination.

"Yeah," Sakura said. "It's like they're related or something."

"Yeah, we're related," Ino retorted, overhearing their conversation. She rolled her eyes. "He's the brother that I've never had and still don't want!"

-

It was dark in the living room. Shikamaru looked at the ancient grandfather clock that always went off at every hour, scaring the living hell out of all of them each time it sounded.

He stood up and took a closer look at the clock. Fifteen minutes to two in the morning.

Before leaving, he quickly paused to scribble a note on the wall.

_October 3  
You have two days to change your quarters to your liking because it will eventually become increasingly difficult to change your surroundings for the next several months until you find yourself unable to adjust it magically at all.  
--Shikamaru  
P.S: Naruto, unless you are absolutely serious about that keeping that hammock for good, I suggest you trade it for something easier to rest in._

There.

No doubt some of them would be annoyed by the short notice. Shikamaru wondered vaguely if anyone realized that he was leaving every night.

Whether they cared or not didn't matter, he told himself, but if they were so inept as to not notice his disappearance every night... well, he couldn't possibly call them cut-rate shinobi, but he would have to say something about their alertness level.

Opening the glass case of the grandfather clock that no one understood quite why Shikamaru kept, he removed a small sack from behind the pendulum that swung back and forth inside.

Equipped with the green powder in the small sack and the black powder in his makeshift backpack, he left in the closest fireplace connected to the Floo network to head to his destination.

-

**My Thinking Corner**

I can't imagine Shikamaru and Sai really super getting on each other's nerves. I can't think of any fault that Shikamaru has, aside from his laziness, which hasn't been much of a fault lately, in the manga and in this fanfiction.

Anyway, I think that there may be a misunderstanding of sorts, concerning Asuma's death. This did not go quite the way it did in canon. For instance, when several members of the Akatsuki directly attacked Konoha, they were at relative peace, and none of the shinobi were with their entire teams during the battle..

Hidan and Kakuzu did not fight Asuma's Niju Shotai team under the same conditions as they did in the real manga. Kakuzu actually fought Kiba back in their last moments in Konoha, and Shikamaru and Asuma fought Hidan. That's when Asuma died, but Shikamaru still continued the fight, in a slight state of shock but otherwise fine.

Moments later, he and Ino met up, while Chouji was still elsewhere. Ino, at first, is horrified to see that Shikamaru's covered in blood, but he dazedly tells her that it's not really his. He never specified from whom the blood had come from.

The ironic part of this all is that I had written the prologue far before I had read this chapter, and when I did read the chapter, all I did was add Kakuzu and Hidan to the story and adjust it so that it all fit better. Which means, yes, if it didn't happen in the manga, I would have killed Asuma anyway, though I would never have though of Shikamaru being a smoker (thought it was a Sarutobi thing and that it'd be Konohamaru).

OH! You know what's funny? On FFnet, the Document Manager has a limited amount of time you can keep a document saved on there. Well I exported a chapter to do some fixing ups and... I currently have "60s and 22s" days left. And one "-137". Yes, folks, that's negative one hundred and thirty seven days left to get rid of my exported chapter. Glitch, anyone?

-

**Review Responses**

Lachwen: _"Again, Yay! XD. I can't wait to read Neji's reaction to Lavender's flirting lol (will he even have any idea what is going on? lol). Thank you very very much for updating - as always, this story is a great read!"  
_You'll be seeing tonight in the next omake. ;) Thanks for the review! The next Chapter is coming out tonight (in celebration of New Years).

phppsmss: _"i'm starting to pity shikamaru"  
_Lol, just starting? Well, hardship is good for character, or else we wouldn't love Naruto so much. Everyone in Konoha has some sort of dramatic past or dramatic present going on anyway.

dark672: _"That omake was too long for my taste's. The chapter was good"_  
I honestly actually have no idea what length it should be, but I hope the next one is better! And thanks:)

Eowyn: _"I was just thinking. If Dumbledore has to make eye contact with Shikamaru to read his mind, maybe a pair of mirrored sunglasses would help?"  
_I responded to this, didn't I? Mm... I think it was in the last chapter.

_Mm, a pretty short list of anonymous reviewers, but it's been less than a week since my last update, so... yeah, I'm about _

-

**Omake: Failed Attempt No. 11**

"Okay," Lavender said to herself, taking a deep breath. "Eleventh time's a charm..."

She climbed up the ladder and back into the Divination Room, where her class had ended some time ago and her current Divination professor was scratching away at his cluttered desk in his office at the back of the room.

Though his back was to her, he paused a moment, still ignoring her, to put his sunglass and hat back on, much to Lavender's curiosity. If he takes it off when no one's around, does that mean he's just shy or he's covering something?

She had seen that his eyes were a pale, creamy white color, so she had assumed for a while that he was blind. However, the few times that he would go to the board and write upon it in chalk, his handwriting was always straight and perfect and rarely looked any bit out of order.

However, on occasion, when he was in the back of the room at his desk, she would notice him sometimes feeling around for various objects on his desk, trying to look busy as Yamanaka continued a lesson in his place.

"What do you need, Miss Brown?" he asked idly as she approached him.

"I was just wondering..." she said slowly, "if you could help me with my divination reading?"

"Why would I do that?" he asked.

Lavender stared at his back. "Because teachers usually tutor students in need?" she suggested, puzzled by his different method of teaching from other teachers.

"No, I meant why would I help you in specific?" the professor amended.

"Because I'm a student in need!" she said angrily.

"So are the various twenty-four other young women who come up every day between classes to ask me to give them 'private tutoring sessions', and the three whom actually managed to convince me to stay for just _one_ tutorial session did nothing but bat their eyelashes prettily at me and giggle like morons," Professor Hyuuga said, looking rather irritated.

"I wouldn't act like that!" Lavender said, outraged, though that had been her exact intentions.

"You have absolutely no reason to come up here requesting assistance with your divination otherwise," he said. "I am wondering just why you of all people would possibly be asking me for 'extra help' when you, of all my students, currently hold top marks among the small handful who truly have a talent for my branch of divination."

"You mean...?"

"Next time you lie, make sure it's believable," he said idly, still not turning around to face her. "It's hard to convince someone that you require tutorials when you're the best student."

"But...but—"

"_However_, should you come again requesting tutorials with the characteristics I am looking for, I will indulge you and spend my valuable time tending to your academic needs."

The next thing Lavender knew, she was rudely dismissed, and as mollified as she was by the news that she was, for once, the best student in a class, it still peeved her that her attempt to get close to him had failed so miserably.

"That..." Lavender murmured to herself, "..._probably_ could have gone better."

But Lavender Brown was nothing, if not persistent, and she would get him to open up to her if it was the last thing she'd do.

-

Is that short enough for an omake now? Maybe I shouldn't call it an omake... maybe just a side story or something...


End file.
